Paranoid
by TheSweetSerenity
Summary: They called him paranoid. Pepper preferred the term cautious. Added little one shots, and then a look at the team's view on Tony.
1. Chapter 1

**This didn't really turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but this idea just popped in my head after re-watching both the Iron Man movies and the Avengers (still awesome the third time). I wrote it out and decided to share it anyway! Read and review :)**

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Paranoid they liked to call him. Tony tends to disagree. He says he's just being cautious. And Pepper? Well, Pepper agrees with Tony. To anyone else it might have bordered on paranoia, but she appreciated the lengths he went to, to make sure he was at full strength at all times.

Like how the first thing he did after any battle was restock the suit, if it was still in one piece, with more bullets and missiles. He ran diagnostics on the systems, making sure each piece was still in complete working order. Even before he was attending to his wounds, he was making sure that every piece of the suit was functional.

(Pepper thinks it's because of a certain time that she was injured. Tony hadn't been able to get there in time because he hadn't made the necessary repairs to the suit the day after a battle. He had taken a hard hit and the doctor's had threatened to tie him to the bed if he didn't rest. With a little help from Jarvis, he had managed to sneak out and get to her in time to save her life. Still, she knew it kept him up at night, caught up in the "what-ifs.")

If there was time before a battle, he checked to make sure each piece was working how it was supposed to. The check only took a couple minutes, each individual piece whirring as it moved, then closing back into place. It was a rare day when they got that much warning before Tony had to fly, but after the first few times he had flown off without checking, the rest of the team noticed how agitated he got, so they always told him first when there was a mission. That way he had time to check the suit and still catch up with the team.

(Pepper remembers the 3 a.m. phone call she got from Steve. "_Pepper? It's about Tony. We were on a mission and a piece of his suit failed. He fell off a building and the flight stabilizers didn't respond. Listen, Thor caught him before he hit the ground, but his arm got broken in the process. We'll make sure he gets home. Don't worry." _She did anyway.)

He always has at least one extra suit ready for action. Usually he has at least two or three, each one just a little different than the other. As they evolved, they became more and more convenient. Like the suit that Happy could carry around in a briefcase, or the one that would connect with his bracelets and form around him. He even promised Pepper that one day, he would create one that she could carry around in her purse. He stored at least one suit in their home in California, one in the Avengers' tower in New York, and one in the Avengers' home base, wherever that was. Anywhere that Tony spent time at least a day a week, there was a suit there.

(Pepper remembers how helpless Tony felt when Ivan attacked him in Monaco. After that moment, he started making sure there were suits everywhere he was, so he could call them up at a moment's notice. It didn't help when he came back from his first mission with the Avengers, Steve's words were still ringing in his ears: _Big man in a suit, take that away and what are you?_)

Despite his protests, Tony never took back Rhodey's suit. The War Machine, he called it. In fact, Tony made sure to visit once a week, or have Rhodey bring the suit over, so that he could upgrade the system and make sure everything was still working. There were times that Rhodey would get into the suit, greeted by Jarvis, and find new functions loaded into the system. Along with that, Tony hooked his suit up with Rhodey's, so that if anything ever happened to him while in the suit, Rhodey would know about it.

(Pepper remembers a particular "date", where it was just the two of them, and out of nowhere, some guy had just attacked Tony. He had taken a hard shot and the arc reactor had been cracked. Pepper had managed to pull him out of the line of fire when the police arrived and call Rhodey for help. By the time he got there, Tony's heart had started stuttering. A few more minutes and he wouldn't have made it, the doctors told her later.)

Speaking of the arc reactors, he always had extras of those too. They weren't easy to carry (well, Tony always argued that they were easy to carry, it just wasn't necessarily safe) but he kept an extra everywhere that there was a suit. The only time he needed to replace one now, after discovering the new element, was after a battle, when the shielding on the arc reactor wasn't strong enough and the reactor was cracked or punctured. Of course, the majority of the time he wasn't conscious to change it out, but everyone he worked with had been instructed on how to change it.

(Pepper remembered walking into the New York Stark tower before it became the Avengers' tower, after S.H.I.E.L.D had arrived to take Loki away. Steve had stared in horror as Tony just collapsed, the arc reactor blinking in and out before it just went dead. Banner was trying to keep everyone calm, since he understood more about the technology in Tony's chest, while Natasha tore his lab apart, looking for an extra reactor to put in. Pepper had walked into the middle of this and immediately took control of the situation. It only took 30 seconds to change out the reactors, another 30 for Tony to wake up, but another week for him to restore calm in his teammates. He finally relented on his "need-to-know" basis and instructed them all on how the reactor worked, where the extras were, and how to change them. Since then, a teammate had had to change it out three times. Three times too many in Pepper's opinion.)

Tony never said anything against his teammates when they laughed at his caution. Instead, he easily diverted their attention with a jab at someone else, using the Stark charm he had been born with. He never really said anything about it to Pepper either, but they had known each other for almost ten years; he didn't need to say anything to her. She understood and made the best accommodations that she could. Tony Stark wasn't known to be careful and take precautions, so whatever assistance she could provide, she would.

(She spent the hours, days, sometimes _weeks_ he was gone worrying, praying it wouldn't be like Afghanistan again, that he would come back to her in one piece. So far he's always come back alive. Maybe a little scraped up, or so exhausted he would sleep for days, but alive and breathing. But she always made sure to that she took the time to wrap her arms around him the first chance she got and just hold him, so that she could feel his warmth, hear the arc reactor humming, see that his chest moved up and down. Even if that meant she had to wait until he had made repairs to his suit before she got him.)


	2. Concussion

**Wow! I was so amazed at all the reviews and attention you guys gave my story, I was inspired to write another chapter. I've gotten a couple of different ideas, one to expand the little stories within Paranoid, and another to do the same kind of idea as Paranoid, but from the perspective of different Avengers' members. I thought about it and decided to do both! I'm not sure if I'm going to alternate between the two ideas or just do one and then the other. What do you think?**

**This little one shot follows the first story in Paranoid, where Tony didn't have time to fix the suit. They might vary a little bit from what was originally written, but hopefully not enough to turn you away. **

**Input is always loved. Enjoy :]**

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"Mr. Stark, please! If you don't lie still, we will restrain you!"

"I'd like to see you try!" The words have force behind them, but even through the video screen, Pepper can see his glazed eyes, see the nausea lurking just below the surface, hear the slight slur of his words. Whatever had happened, she could tell Tony had quite the concussion.

"Tony," she said quietly, but Tony had always been able to pick her voice out in a crowd. His eyes dart up to hers, then continue their roam around the room. In the best of times, Tony had trouble keeping his focus on one thing. With a concussion, he was bound to be trying to pick out just _one _thing that would remain still when he looked at it. "Settle down. They're just trying to help."

"But I need to get home," he protested. His protests were weaker this time, and the doctors around him relaxed, finally able to attend to his other wounds.

"I'm right here Tony. I'm not going anywhere."

"But…there's repairs. To the suit. Need to be done." Right, always the repairs. She could see some of the doctors smirking, thinking he was incapable of doing _anything_ right now, but she had seen him make repairs to the suit while mildly sedated, drunk, and injured before. He never made a mistake.

"You won't be going anywhere for a day, so Iron Man can wait another day," Pepper told him, putting her own force behind the words. His eyelids were flickering shut. She was so close…

And then everything went to hell. Even months later, Pepper never really remembered seeing all of what happened. What she did remember was a flash of light, a booming thunder, and wave of scalding hot air. Underneath everything, she remembered a voice yelling her name.

When she woke up a day later, she knew something had gone terribly wrong. The last thing she remembered was watching Tony while he was lying in a hospital bed, but now she's the one in the bed and Tony is the one watching her. As soon as her eyelids open, Tony is standing up, moving closer to her, clutching her hand. She's awake enough to see his twitches of pain, but not awake enough to connect the dots.

"What happened?" she asks instead.

Turns out that someone had planted a bomb in the Stark Tower she had been occupying at the time. When the bomb had gone off, the majority of the floor she had been on had been demolished but by some lucky happenstance, her office managed to stay mostly intact. She was now the recipient of a concussion, some minor burns, and a sprained wrist.

Of course, that was only half of the story. She learned the rest of it from Natasha, who had been the one to chase after Tony when he flew out of the ship to come after her. The doctors, unprepared for the sudden violence from their nearly docile patient, had been caught off guard. With some help from Jarvis, he had locked down the hallways, allowing himself free range to get to his armor. The suit was barely functional, but he had put it on anyway, and barely made it to her before it quit working. He had found her and pulled her from the office, getting her to safety even as the majority of the ceiling crumbled, caving in the area where she had been laying. Of course, that wasn't enough for Tony Stark. He then went back into the building, pulling out as many survivors as possible before S.H.I.E.L.D showed up. When Tony refused to leave, even though he and the suit were barely moving, Steve had knocked him out and then went back to helping with damage control.

Tony had beat Pepper back to consciousness by a few hours. His injuries before he had flown out to save her had been a broken rib, an intense concussion, and some bad bruising. After saving her, he added on extreme exhaustion, two more broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and several burns.

She gave his hand a squeeze. "Hey. It's going to be okay. We're okay," she said reassuringly.

"Right. I know," he said, smiling at her, but the smile was shaky.

He would dream he was too late to save her for months after, but the doctors learned to never doubt Tony when he said he was functional enough to fix his suit.


	3. Suit Failure

**I love all the attention you guys have been giving me! Pretty soon I'm going to have an ego as big as Tony's :P This new chapter is a gift for all of the mothers out there. You make the world go 'round and all of your children love you for that :)**

**Thank you everyone for the reviews. I hope you continue to enjoy!**

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Deep in her subconscious, she realized that Jarvis was talking to her, trying to cajole her out of sleep. Not that it really took much. She had learned long ago to answer any phone, whether it was her's, Tony's, or Jarvis himself.

"Mmm Jarvis, if that's Tony tell him he should be home by now," she mumbled sleepily, not bothering to open her eyes.

"I apologize Ms. Potts. It's Captain Rogers. He insists that it's urgent," Jarvis said in his polite monotone voice. Pepper sat up in bed quickly, wide awake.

"Open the line Jarvis."

"Right away Ms. Potts."

"Ms. Potts?" Steve's voice was strained, a little worried. She knew it was bad news by the way he called her "Ms. Potts" and not "Pepper" as she had instructed him to do so many times.

"Captain, is Tony okay?" she asked urgently, needing to know _now_.

"He's going to be fine Ms. Potts. There was, however, a…accident during the mission today."

Pepper got up and started getting dressed. She always made sure all of her important belongings sat next to each other, for moments just like this, so she could grab them at a moment's notice.

"What happened?"

"He got pushed off a building and his flight stabilizers didn't respond for some reason." Pepper froze in her motions, images instantly flowing through her mind of Tony, lying motionless on the dented ground, the arc reactor's light flickering out, and his chest not moving-

"Ms. Potts?" From the change in his tone, it wasn't the first time Steve had called her name. She forced herself to breath, to push the images to the back of her mind so that she could function again.

"I-I'm sorry Captain. What were you saying?"

"It's nothing terrible. Thor managed to catch him before he hit the ground, but it broke his arm in the process and he had a nasty concussion. The arc reactor was also damaged."

"Current power of the arc reactor is at 12% Ms. Potts," Jarvis' voice interjected. "I recommend a change of reactors to prevent lasting damage."

"Thank you Jarvis. I'll need someone to pick me up Captain."

"Natasha is on her way already," Steve said, a little bit of relief edging into his tone. "And Ms. Potts?"

"Please Captain, I told you to call me Pepper," she said, glad that something normal could come out of their conversation.

"I just wanted to tell you not to worry…Pepper."

"Thank you Captain Rogers," she said, sidestepping his reassurance. Until she had Tony in her sights and her arms, she would worry profusely.

"Agent Romanoff is approaching the helipad, Ms. Potts," Jarvis intoned. Pepper practically slid down the stairs to Tony's lab. Jarvis was one step ahead of her, already unlocking the door so that she could get in and grab one of the extra reactors Tony left sitting on his desk.

"Tell Natasha that I will be up momentarily," she said, grabbing her jacket off the back of the couch before heading to the elevator.

"If I may, Ms. Potts, my Bluetooth connection is sitting on the table. If you would like to monitor Mr. Stark's vitals in flight, I can display them for you."

"Thank you Jarvis," Pepper said, grabbing the device off the table and hooking it into her ear.

Sure enough, Natasha was waiting for her on the helipad, the back of the ship open and ready. As soon as she had stepped on the ship, Natasha pulled it up, lifting them into the sky. Pepper stood in the opening to the pilots' seats, Natasha on one side of her, Clint on the other.

"Natasha, Clint," she said, greeting them.

"You're very cordial for a 3 a.m. emergency call," Clint said as Natasha relayed their route to base.

Pepper forced her lips into a smile. "This isn't the first 3 a.m. call I've gotten about Tony." Nor was it the worst one. They had woken her around this time to inform that he had gone missing in Afghanistan, and then again when they had found him.

_Pepper? We found him. He's alive but…it doesn't look good. He's got a lot of medical problems and it's going to take a while for him to recover mentally. We're bringing him home immediately. We want you there to greet him. Your presence might keep him…calm. _

"I could believe that," Clint said with a smirk.

"We're about fifteen minutes out from base," Natasha said.

"How is he?" Pepper asked.

"He was dozing in and out of consciousness when we left. We weren't going to wake you, until the reactor started flickering. Tony tried to convince Director Fury not to make the call but Steve did it while they were arguing," Natasha told her.

"You make it sound like Tony actually put up a fight," Clint said with a snort. "It's hard to argue with Fury when you fall asleep halfway through your sentences."

Pepper could think of a couple times when Tony was still able to make a convincing argument while intoxicated, exhausted, or both. She touched her hand to the device in her ear.

"Jarvis, are you there?" Instantly a display screen popped up, Tony's vitals flashing on the screen.

"I have been monitoring Mr. Stark's vitals, Ms. Potts," Jarvis' voice echoed through the chamber. "They appear to be stable. Arc Reactor is working at 10% power."

"How does he do that?" Clint asked, looking over his shoulder to look at the screen.

"I am fully functional within the ship, Agent Barton. Through the ship's system I can access all vital monitoring machines," Jarvis explained.

"He's also hooked up the arch reactor," Pepper added. "That's how he monitors the power."

"We're approaching home base," Natasha said. Sure enough, the enormous flying ship appeared in the large window shield. Pepper had seen it once before, when Tony had taken her to meet the team. They were designing the New York Stark tower to be a land base for the team, and he wanted everything perfect, which really meant that he wanted Pepper to deal with the human aspect of the design. That included knowing the team and their needs.

Pepper clutched the new arc reactor in her hand as Natasha landed the ship. Clint was at the door, ready to lead her to the med bay before the engine had even been powered off. It wasn't until she was halfway down the hall that she realized she had never put any shoes on, the halls void of the normal _click-clack _her high heels made.

The med bay was empty of anyone standing when Clint led her in. The room was darkened except for the light coming off the machines and the dim light of the arc reactor.

"Thank you Clint. I'll keep an eye on him," Pepper said quietly. Clint nodded and left the room, leaving her alone with Tony. She sighed as she moved closer, taking in the many bruises and cuts her boyfriend had acquired. His left arm was lying perfectly straight, tightly wrapped in a cast while his other arm lay over his chest. "Jarvis, can I get a little bit of light?"

"Of course Ms. Potts."

Tony stirred at the voices, his eyes blinking open. Pepper recognized the glassy look in his eyes. It wasn't the first time she had taken care of him when he had a concussion. "Pepper?"

"What did I tell you about these missions?" Pepper asked as she moved closer. Underneath the blankets, he was shirtless. She twisted the old reactor, pulling it out with a slight pop.

"What're you doin'?" Tony's words were slurred.

"Fixing you, just as always," Pepper said as she pulled the reactor loose, ignoring the slight gasp that came from Tony's lips as it popped out. She quickly and deftly traded out the reactors, popping the new one in within seconds. "There. Now you should go back to sleep."

"Be here when I wake up?" he asked. It still amazed Pepper how open he could be at times like this, when he physically couldn't hold his barriers up anymore. Of course, concussed and exhausted was one thing—concussed and loopy was completely different. She reached out and took his right hand and squeezed it gently. Her other hand went on his chest. Sure, the machines and Jarvis could tell her that he was breathing, but she preferred feeling his chest rise. A slight warmth came from the reactor.

"Always," she promised him. "Always."

Tony turned his head to face her, closed his eyes, and fell back asleep. Jarvis turned the lights off again and Pepper leaned forward, resting her head on the bed, falling asleep to the sound of his breathing.


	4. Midnight Calls

**Here's the next installment of the story! I'm sorry I made you guys wait so long, but I suddenly got really busy. I can tell by your reviews you're all really excited for the arc reactor story, but there's another story before that one! I've started working on the team's views on Tony and I've got two of them done so far!**

**As ever, I hope you all enjoy and I hope to hear from all of you again :D**

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"Tony?" Pepper mumbled as she blindly typed her passcode into Tony's lab. She had woken up a few minutes ago, looked to see that the clock read 3 a.m. and noticed that the spot next to her was vacant. Tony was an early riser, but this was a little bit obnoxious, even for him. So she had pulled on her robe and headed down to the only place Tony would be at this hour—his lab.

He was working on the suit again, a new one this time. He already had two completed suits-one that he used and a back-up in case something failed in the first suit-but he always had new ideas flowing through his mind, so Pepper really couldn't say she was surprised.

"What are you doing up?" she asked, moving closer to him. She rested a hand on his shoulder but he didn't stop his work. Not a good night then.

It wasn't the first time he'd had a bad night. Nightmares kept him up often, about being too late to save her at the expo, Afghanistan, Stane, and recently the sensation of floating in space and knowing he was about to die. Plus he was still trying to deal with Coulson's death, something she knew had hit him really hard.

"I'm working on a new suit. I should have one on the ship, just in case," he said, not even bothering to look at her.

"Tony," she protested, putting her hand on his chest and putting pressure on it. She would never be able to move him by herself, but he took the hint and stepped away, turning to look at her. She searched his eyes, completely devoid of the normal arrogance. Instead, she found hurt hidden within, and behind that, a fear driving him to build, build, build. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. I just want to be prepared," Tony said, turning back to his work. She leaned against the table behind her, knowing it was better to wait then harass him. She could tell him that he could trust her, but he already knew that. She could tell him that he couldn't hide from whatever was bothering him, but he knew that too. It was strange being in his lab when there was no music and no conversation between Tony and Jarvis. He worked on the boot a little longer, not even bothering to wake up any of the other helper robots. Finally he set the tool down.

"They think I'm weak," he said, turning to her. "That without my suit, I'm nothing. And they're right. If I were attacked right now, I wouldn't be able to do a single thing. Ivan proved that."

Pepper had worried that something like this might happen. There was a reason that heroes never worked together—teams like theirs required instant chemistry because they were usually formed once the need was there. They couldn't go out and fight if they couldn't trust each other to watch the other's back and none of them just freely gave out that trust. And if there was one thing Tony was terrible with above all others, it was first impressions. He was snarky, he talked back, he defied authority, and in the end, he usually got what he wanted. It would take a while for the team to understand that there was usually a good reason for what he did. And until they got to that point, harsh words would be exchanged. She had just been hoping to avoid this.

"Tony, you're never weak," she told him. He scoffed.

"Tell that to the good Captain

Oh now they were getting into all sorts of complications. She knew Howard had raised Tony on Captain America stories until Tony had learned to hate both of them. When they had pulled the captain from the ice, Tony had gone to see him. It had been him who had worked with S.H.I.E.L.D on how to remove the ice and revive Steve and then had never returned to see him.

"What did exactly did he say?" Pepper had to believe Tony was blowing this out of proportion. From what she had heard of Steve, he wasn't brutal.

"'Big man in a suit, take that away and what are you?'" Tony said bitterly, turning back to look at his boot, but he didn't pick up his tools again. His words held the practiced tone that came when someone had repeated the words over and over in their head until they were engraved in their skull.

Pepper managed to hold back her flinch. Right. Iron Man was nearly invincible. Tony Stark? He was human. "Tony, everyone always tries to separate you from Iron Man, but you proved that was impossible to do. How can they separate the two of you when it was from your mind and your hands that Iron Man came from? Besides that, you proved that you are capable of survival by yourself. You came back from Afghanistan alive, even after everyone thought you were dead."

She moved closer to him and wrapper her arms around him to rest her head on his shoulder.

"They don't know you yet Tony. They say the first things that pop into their mind, whether or not they know it's true. Give them time."

She felt his muscles relax slightly underneath her and knew she had at least slightly penetrated his despair. He turned, so that he could wrap his arms around her. The arc reactor hummed quietly in her ear.

"Besides, I bet you didn't say very nice things either," she said, deciding it was safe to bring a lighter mood into the room.

"Who? Me? Nah, only compliments come out of this mouth."

Pepper smiled, glad that the old Tony was back. The real proof that he was recovering would be if he got up the next night to get more work done on the suit.

"Right. So what exactly is your plan? Build a suit for every place you've ever been?"

"Something along those lines. A couple for the base, a couple for this tower, a couple back in Malibu, and one to carry with me when I go out in public."

"Have you developed anything new outside of the case you make Happy cart around?"

"No, but it's been in the back of my mind for a while now. I did make it lighter after the last repairs. I was thinking about for my new suit…"

And for the next hour, she let Tony talk out his ideas, even though she had very little to contribute. About a half hour into their talk, he woke Jarvis up and started pinging ideas off of him. She smiled as he started working again, instructing Jarvis to turn on some music and reminding him not to let anybody (especially her) turn it off.

"I'll leave you boys to it. I'm going back to bed." She kissed Tony on the cheek and went to go leave, but Tony caught her wrist. She looked back at him.

"Thanks," he told her. She moved back to give him another kiss.

"Sometimes we need help to see the truth. I'll always be here for that," she promised, then ambled her way back up to bed.

She smiled when she rolled over the next night and found the bed occupied by a warm being, a soft blue light bathing her face as she fell back asleep.


	5. Chance Encounters

**Yay for more love from all of you! I love it :) I'm apologizing for this piece because it wasn't my favorite to write and I feel like that really showed. On the plus side though, everybody's favorite story is coming up next! (-cough cough- probably tomorrow -cough cough-). **

**I hope you all enjoy :D**

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"That was nice," Pepper said as she wrapped her arm around Tony's. They had just left the restaurant, and for once there was no media, no screaming fan girls, and no pack of body guards that Happy and Fury insisted Tony take around with him when he was out of the suit.

"You sound surprised," Tony accused. "I can be romantic sometimes too!"

Pepper tilted her head up to kiss him on the cheek. "I never said you couldn't. How did you talk Happy and Fury out of the body guards?"

"I may have told him that we were going to a different restaurant at a different time," Tony said with his trademark grin. She had seen it earlier that day when Happy had been leaving the house, those lips housing far more mischief than she thought healthy. "And then had Jarvis make us basically untraceable."

Despite Pepper's happiness with their quiet dinner, she tightened her grip on Tony's arm a little. "Tony…was that really the best choice? You don't have your suit with you. What if something happened?"

"I said _basically_. I left Fury a back door into the system that he can easily hack into if he needs to get a hold of me."

Pepper's eyes narrowed. "That doesn't sound like something the great Tony Stark would do."

She could practically feel his grin grow wider. "Well, he can only access about 40% of my system, but I made it look like he has full access when he hacks into it. Maybe that'll stop him from poking his eye where it doesn't belong."

"One day you're going to push him too far," Pepper said, resigned to Tony's death-by-Fury fate.

"Who? Me? I'm completely innocent," Tony protested.

"After all this work I went through to civilize you," Pepper complained with a roll of her eyes.

"Hey, I'd say you did a pretty good job!" Tony said. She hoped this wasn't about to turn into another 12% moment. "I mean, we're here tonight, aren't we?"

Pepper understood what he meant. They were here, together, instead of Tony out at some random party, surrounded by models and playboy bunnies. And he was part of a team now, one that she trusted to watch his back, no matter how much they wanted to kill him around the house.

"That is very true Mr. Stark," she said, stopping so that she could seal that thought with a kiss. "And you _have_ been-"

"Oh my god! He's got a gun!" a voice rang out a few seconds before the shots did. The woman who had cried the warning fell with a cry, a bullet to her shoulder. She pulled herself behind a car, hoping for some cover. Tony turned, taking in the streets quickly before pinpointing the gunman three cars down.

"Tony don-" But as usual, Tony acted before he thought, pushing Pepper down behind a car before walking calmly forward, arms raised.

"Hey buddy, why don't you just put down the gun and tell me what you want," Tony said. Pepper wanted to dart out from behind the car and pull Tony back, but she knew that would only get him in more trouble. Instead, she pulled out her phone, easily connecting to Jarvis.

"Jarvis, I need you to call NYPD and assemble whoever is in the house. Track my location," she whispered into the phone, proud that her voice was only a little shaky.

"Right away Ms. Potts." Jarvis' voice was heaven sent and Pepper took a breath in to calm herself. "Captain Rogers would like to know-"

Whatever Jarvis had been about to say was cut off when Pepper heard another gun shot and people screaming. She peeked around the car and tried not to pass out or throw up.

Lying on the ground was Tony, a trail of blood making a little stream on the pavement. Even more worrying though, was that Tony's jacket had opened a little when he fell, exposing the white shirt beneath it. But there was no blue light emitting through the light colored shirt. Pepper bit her lip and curled her hand around the car's bumper to try and relieve the tension in her body.

_He's fine, he's going to be fine. He's survived so much worse. _

The gunman had probably shot the arc reactor, destroying it. This was good, because it meant that the bullet most likely been stopped by the reactor before it could get to his heart. The blood was most likely from hitting his head when he fell. This was bad, because if Pepper couldn't change the reactor in time, Tony would still die.

"J-Jarvis. I-I need you to call Rhodey. Tell-tell him to bring an extra reactor," she managed to ground out into the phone. Sirens in the background alerted her to NYPD's arrival. She glanced around the car again, and saw the gunman stalking off towards the police, leaving Tony alone. She watched him a second more before deciding to pull a Tony-like move. She darted out from behind the car as the captain of the police squad got on the megaphone, calling the shooter's attention away from her and Tony. She didn't pause as she approached Tony, just grabbed him under the arms and pulled with all her might, dragging him behind a car.

Pepper let out the breath she had been holding once she got them safely behind the car. The gunman was screaming something at the police, but she wasn't really listening anymore. Pepper reached for her phone to find out Rhodey's ETA and came up with empty road. She had left her phone sitting back at her hiding spot. However far away Rhodey was, hopefully it was in time for Tony.

Turning to the problem at hand, she broke apart Tony's shirt. As she suspected, the arc reactor was completely destroyed. She twisted it out of its place and pulled it from his chest. Deep inside the reactor was the bullet, lodged centimeters from the baseplate. She moved up to his head and found a matted and bruised spot on his forehead. Tony might have already been on the ground before he was shot. A pistol whip had a tendency do that to a person.

"Sorry Tony," she whispered as she tore off a strip of cloth from his jacket. She could already hear his response in her head: _that was brand name Pepper! The jacket alone was 300 dollars! What do you mean, why would I wear something like that out on a date? Why wouldn't I? _No doubt after that he would have moved on to some cheesy romantic line that he thought (knew) would work on her. She tied off her makeshift bandage, then leaned back against the car, resting one hand on his chest to keep track of his breathing, and the other clutching his hand greedily.

"It's going to be okay Tony. I just need you to keep breathing," she whispered. Rhodey had given her a rundown on things to watch for if the arc reactor ever stopped working, news he had gotten from the doctors who had first worked with Tony when they found him: _Slower or restricted breathing._ Check. _Obvious pain or discomfort_. Check. _Pale skin and feelings of weakness_. Check. _In event of any of these symptoms, seek approved medical attention immediately. Time is vital. Every time the electromagnet stops working, the shrapnel is able to get a little closer to the heart. It is unlikely the arc reactor will be able to pull it any farther back. _

"Come on Jarvis, where is everybody?" she whispered.

"Ms. Potts?" a voice beside her made her jump, and actually elicited a response from Tony, who groaned and rolled his head on her lap. Standing above her was Steve, armed with his shield and uniform.

"Have you talked with Rhodey?" she asked in a rush. Steve blinked at her, but must have made something out.

"Yes, he told me to give you this. He also-" Whatever else he was saying, Pepper ignored. He had held out the arc reactor and Pepper seized it from his hands and quickly hooked it up to Tony's chest. Tony gave a stuttering gasp, but otherwise remained unconscious.

"Steve, please, he needs medical attention," she begged.

"I'll go get a paramedic," Steve offered, but Pepper was shaking her head.

"He can't go to just any hospital; they don't know how to work around the arc reactor. S.H.I.E.L.D and a select few military hospitals are prepared for him. Please tell me the helicarrier is closer than the nearest hospital."

Steve's eyes widened before he put his hand to his ear. "Natasha, how far out is the helicarrier? Tell Fury to bring as close to us as fast as he can. Tony needs medical attention."

Pepper gave a little sigh of relief. Natasha understood the most about the needs of Tony Stark. When she had started her work as Tony's new PA, she had been briefed about situations like this.

"They're bringing the jet down to us and we'll head out to meet Fury and the doctors on the helicarrier. What exactly is wrong with him?"

"Right now he needs a body scan to see if there's any internal bleeding. He's not supposed to leave the arc reactor off for more than a minute but it's been at least five and he's having trouble breathing and he's in pain and he's-" She couldn't get herself to stop talking and she was getting closer and closer to tears. What she really needed right now was for Tony to wake up, to smile at her, and say something snarky. The ground began to rumble as the jet lowered down to them. Steve put a hand on her shoulder.

"Pepper. It's going to be okay. We're here now," he told her before he picked Tony up from her lap. Pepper used the brief walk to the jet to compose herself. Right now, she was the only one who knew how to take care of Tony and panicking wouldn't solve anything.

"Do you have an oxygen tank on here?" she asked as Steve laid Tony across one of the benches. Natasha was standing, waiting for them while Clint manned the controls.

"There should be an emergency kit here somewhere," Natasha said as she started to open cupboards and drawers.

"You carry an oxygen tank in an emergency kit?" Pepper asked as she checked Tony's breathing again.

"All of the jets were equipped to handle first response teams," Clint said helpfully from up front. "An oxygen tank is one of the necessary things for those teams."

"Here," Natasha said, pulling out a portable tank, already hooked up to a mask. She knew Tony hates having restrictions on his body, reminding him too much of captivity and things he still hasn't told her, but she's not seeing another option. The only blessing she can give him is holding it over his mouth instead of strapping it around his head.

"He has a cut on his head too, but it's nothing serious. I think the guy hit him with the gun and while he was down, shot the arc reactor." Taking care of Tony is giving her something to do, taking her mind off of her own terror.

"What did the gunman want?" Steve asked as he un-wrapped the piece of cloth. The bleeding has slowed to a sluggish pace, the bruise becoming more predominant. Natasha brought over a box containing bandages, braces, and wound cleaning supplies. Pepper shook her head at Steve.

"I don't know, we were just walking back to the car from dinner and someone shouted that a guy had a gun and everything just…"

"Just went to hell," Clint offered.

Pepper managed a shaky smile. "Exactly. How long until we reach the helicarrier?"

"Another ten minutes. We were lucky they were nearby. Although, they tend not to stray too far. I think they don't trust us with New York anymore," Clint told her.

"You've been hanging around Tony too long Agent Barton," Pepper said, recognizing Tony's biting humor in his voice. "Think you can cut the time down a little?"

"Challenge accepted," Clint said and the ship lurched a little as he pushed the ship faster.

When they reached the helicarrier, a team of doctors were waiting to take Tony away for scans. His breathing was a little better and his color had started coming back, so Pepper was hoping that was a sign of no internal bleeding. Without Tony to look after, however, Pepper was suddenly at a loss of what to do with herself. Natasha took pity on her and brought her to a small kitchen near the medical ward. She idly chatted (which was strange enough because Natasha didn't idly do anything) as she made a pot of coffee. The smell and caffeine woke Pepper a little out of her daze.

"Ms. Potts." It was Jarvis, overtaking the normal communications line. He wouldn't do so unless instructed which meant… "Mr. Stark is awake and asking for you. I recommend that you join him immediately before the nurses carry through with their threat to sedate him."

Pepper didn't know whether she should yell or laugh, so she went with being resigned. "Of course, thank you Jarvis."

"Well at least we know there was no permanent damage," Natasha said with a sigh as she tipped her glass back. Pepper had a feeling her coffee had been watered down in a Tony-like manner—with vodka.

"So it would seem, Agent Romanoff," Jarvis said, his dry humor managing to pull a smile from Pepper.

"Lead the way Agent Romanoff," Pepper said, motioning for her to leave first.

Tony was telling the nurses _for_ _the last time, he did not need an oxygen mask _when the door whooshed open and deadly silence fell. Tony looked up to see a highly unamused Pepper surveying him with her "you are in so much trouble" glare.

"Mr. Stark," she started out and he already knew this was going to end terribly. For him. Maybe it wasn't just him picking this up because the number of nurses surrounding him had suddenly decreased. "Would you like to explain to me exactly what you were doing, stepping out in front of an armed gunman with nothing to defend yourself?"

"I had my personality and good looks," he defended, but it came out as more of a question.

"In that case, we're lucky he didn't unload the entire gun into you!" Pepper said, throwing her arms up in defeat. Now he had got her started. "You just got lucky that the arc reactor stopped the bullet from hitting your heart because god knows you don't have enough shrapnel in your chest already!"

"Pepper-"

"And the doctors tell me that if you had gone a few more minutes, the shrapnel would have entered your heart! And that now you're going to have to start being careful about the arc reactor shutting down again, because the shrapnel is closer to your heart than they'd like!" She made a frustrated noise and moved farther into the room. "This is like the Expo all over again! You're going to give me a heart attack!"

"Except I was there this time!" Tony managed to get in, stopping Pepper in her tracks. When he knew that he had her attention he continued. "I was there this time, to make sure you were okay. I wasn't about to risk your life."

If Tony was hoping that was going to stop Pepper, he was sorely mistaken. "Risk me? _Risk me_? What about you? My life is not worth more than yours!"

"Ma'am maybe you should…" one of the nurses tentatively started, putting a hand on her arm.

"Don't touch me! You try dealing with him!" she protested. Yet, despite all her yelling, she had found her way over to Tony's bed and had one hand in his.

"I wouldn't even think about it," one of the other nurses muttered as she led the others out of the room.

"Let me make one thing clear. If you ever, _ever_, try that move again before calling for back-up, I will personally take the gun and shoot you," Pepper told him.

"Does this mean I'm forgiven?" Tony asked meekly. Well, as meek as Tony Stark could ever get. Pepper sighed.

"For trying to protect me? Almost. For scaring me?" She tilted her head in consideration. "Jarvis, add it to the list."

"Of course Ms. Potts," Jarvis intoned.

Tony looked at her with wide eyes. "The list? What list?"

She patted him apologetically on the shoulder. "Maybe you'll find out one day dear."

Tony glared at Natasha, who was still lurking in the doorway. "You were absolutely no help," he pouted at her. She gave him her full-toothed grin.

"I never intended to be. I was here purely for entertainment purposes. Now that this fight is over, I'm going to go find someone else about to get in trouble."

"You should try Clint," Tony offered. "I heard Fury walk by telling some poor soul he wanted Hawkeye five hours ago."

"Thanks!" Natasha said with a slight wave as she walked off, leaving the two of them alone.

"Now that we're alone…"

"Yes," Tony asked with a hopeful smile. Pepper smiled lethally at him.

"We need to have a talk."

* * *

**-cough cough- They need to talk about the arc reactor -cough cough-**


	6. Arc Reactor 101

**I'm sorry it took so long to get this posted! We took a spontaneous adventure today (which ended in me turning this interesting shade of red. I hurt everywhereeee). There'll be on more shot before we move onto the team's view of Tony, but without further ado, here is the much waited for addition. I hope it lives up to expectations :)**

* * *

Pepper thought S.H.I.E.L.D had allowed her back in here because the war was over. If the noises were any indication though, it was still in full swing.

"What the hell?" a male voice was yelling. "He was fine and now he's just…not!"

"Is he still breathing? How am I supposed to check for a pulse with all his armor on?" another male voice contributed to the yelling.

"That is not normal, yes? He does not look good…"

"Please, if you would all remain calm I-"

"He has to have extras around here somewhere. I'm going down to the lab." That voice Pepper recognized—Natasha. Pepper stepped out of the doorway. Steve was trying to pry the armor off of an unconscious Tony, Thor was standing in the background, a worried look on his face. Hawkeye was standing next to him, looking like he was torn between poking Tony with his bow or calling for help. Bruce stood with a hand on Steve's shoulder, trying to pull him back, a frustrated look on his face.

"What-what's going on here?" Pepper said. She was surprised they even looked up. Her voice was soft enough that it could have easily gotten lost in their panic.

"He just collapsed!" Steve said, pointing to Tony, like she couldn't see her boyfriend lying on the floor in the red armor. She had never met any of these men before, but yet they all seemed to react to her voice. Of course, Pepper could recognize all of them (not that Tony had told her about the Avengers Initiative).

"I apologize Ms. Potts. I was trying to warn them, but Mr. Stark muted me. The arc reactor has sustained too much damage to function," Jarvis' voice came over in the silence. "I recommend an immediate change of reactors."

Pepper looked at Tony's chest to see the light was dead. Not good then. Tony had apparently escaped one life-or-death situation, just to get himself into another one. Pepper didn't know whether she should roll her eyes or cry. She shook her head and ran to the stairs. There was no time for either.

"Have the lab open for me when I get down there Jarvis," she instructed. She had gotten into the habit of not wearing shoes in this tower, which helped her slide down the stairs at top speed.

"Of course Ms. Potts. Agent Romanoff is currently in the lab, looking for another reactor. Shall I tell her where they are?"

"Yes. Wait, no." Tony would kill her if she just gave away secrets like that. He guarded his Iron Man technology fiercely. "Did she hack the system again?"

"I'm afraid it was nothing quite as high tech," Jarvis said. Pepper had always enjoyed his dry humor, even now. "She shot one of the glass windows with an energized weapon."

"I told him glass was a stupid idea," Pepper muttered as she slid around the corner, jumped through the window, and hurried to his desk. Natasha was nowhere near the right place. Of course, Tony's desk probably seemed like too obvious an idea. She reached under the desk, felt for the latch, and slid an arc reactor out.

"Come on, we have to go bring Tony back to life. Again," Pepper said as Natasha turned to look at her. "How are his vitals Jarvis?"

"I estimate another minute before serious complications arise. However, pulse rate and blood pressure are dropping."

"Hang on Tony." She wasn't sure if it was a prayer or a command.

When she entered what used to be their living room again, Bruce had managed to pull Steve off to the side and was instructing them on everything that he knew about the technology, which was a pitiful amount considering what a brilliant man he was.

"Jarvis, release the armor," she commanded as she slid down next to him.

"Right away Ms. Potts."

There was a second's pause, then the armor jumped into action, neatly folding itself away from Tony's body until pieces of the armor littered the ground. Without any hesitation, Pepper ripped open his shirt, pulled the dead reactor from his chest, and hooked the new one up.

"What the hell?" she heard the man with the bow say again, apparently unable to state exactly what he was confused about. Instead, he opted to just point at Tony and look helplessly at Bruce.

With a gasp, Tony came to. "Guh! Did I die again?"

"Nearly!" Pepper accused, torn between crying and yelling.

"Oh this is much better than last time. Please tell me you kissed me," Tony said, managing to wrangle himself into a sitting position.

"Don't push your luck," Pepper warned. Tony looked down at his shirt.

"Did you tear my shirt? You've been waiting to do that since you started working for me, haven't you?"

Oh, Pepper had a good idea that Tony was going to be just fine. Some things, however, needed to change around here, starting with the panicked looks Tony's team was still giving him.

(|o_o|) |)_(| (|0_0|) (You've just been peekaboo-ed)

"Explain to me why we're doing this again?" Tony complained. To anyone else, it might look like he was only half paying attention to the conversation while he messed with the helmet of his suit in his workshop. In reality, it the suit he was only half paying attention to. He had made these repairs more times than he cared to count.

"Because," Pepper said patiently. "Your team is still worried about you. You really scared them when you collapsed and since then, I've been called in to change the reactor twice."

"So? You solved everything."

"Tony, I'm not always going to conveniently be there."

"Banner and Natasha would have gotten it eventually. Or called you. Or asked Jarvis."

"Tony, Banner and Natasha would not have gotten it. You keep the extra reactors locked in your workshop where only you, Rhodey, and I can get to them and Banner barely knows anything about the technology. And while you teach them about this today," she said, tapping the source of light that bled through his shirt, "you should teach them about Jarvis too. Only Natasha, Clint, and Bruce have really seen this kind of technology."

"So what you're really saying is you want me to teach the two most technology-impaired people some of the highest forms of technology out there."

"I wouldn't say they're the highest forms of technology-" Pepper started, a small smirk on her face.

"Hey, I built them, didn't I?"

"-but you don't need to teach them how Jarvis _works_, just how to use him."

"I don't share well with others," Tony said, immediately turning back to the argument at hand. Pepper sighed, exasperated.

"Tony, you're acting like a child. I'm not asking you to share every design you've ever made. I'm asking you to teach them enough about the technology to save your life."

Something in her "you're going to be sleeping on the couch soon" tone must have gotten through to him. "Fine."

"Would you like me to run the usual tests on the helmet sir?" Jarvis asked as Tony set down the tools.

"Go for it," Tony said with an absent-minded wave at the helmet sitting on the bench. "Just out of curiosity, what would have been my punishment if I kept acting like a child?"

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Nothing that you're imagining, I can promise you that."

"Oh come on. Not even a little spanking? Maybe a time out with you?" he asked as she exited the shop.

"They're all waiting upstairs for you Tony!" she called back to him, choosing to ignore his comment. Still, she couldn't keep the smile from her face. It was just so…Tony.

"Alright listen up. Since _someone _thinks this is important and I want a bed to sleep in tonight, I'm apparently teaching you how to keep me alive," Tony said, shooting glares at Pepper, who kindly shot them right back. He had received those glares on numerous occasions, the ones that said "straighten up. Don't make me come up there."

Sitting in the living room was the Avengers team, sprawled out over the entire room. Natasha opened her mouth, looking like she was about to say something, then closed it after a jab from Clint.

"I have no doubt that S.H.I.E.L.D, when they so kindly decided to hack my systems, downloaded all of the data about the arc reactor," Tony said, a hint of anger pushing past the light banter tone of his voice.

"Didn't you also hack into S.H.I.E.L.D's systems?" Steve asked with a raised eyebrow. Tony waved his remarks away.

"Not the point. Anyway, the reason this is in here," he said, tapping the reactor in his chest, "is because I have shrapnel too close to my heart for the doctors to remove." Steve opened his mouth to ask a question but Tony beat him to it. "I got that from when I was kidnapped in Afghanistan." If S.H.I.E.L.D hadn't shown Steve the file they had on him, they gave out less information then he thought. "Basically, the arc reactor is a tiny electromagnet. It can't pull the shrapnel out, but it does stop it from moving closer to my heart."

"What powers it?" Steve again. Tony could already tell this was going to take forever.

"Originally it was palladium. Now it's this new element that—you know, I still haven't named it yet." Tony looked back at Pepper, ready to start spitting out more ideas for a name, but she gave him a sharp look and he immediately turned back to Rogers. "It's more stable than the palladium. And it doesn't, you know, slowly poison me. _Anyway_," Tony said as Steve opened his mouth again, "there's two parts to the arc reactor; the reactor and the element that powers it." With another glare, he pulled out one of the extras he had to show them. He flipped it over to the back and showed them the slot where the element went in. "Usually when the reactor fails, it's because of the case. But if the element ever runs out of energy, it just needs a new core. If you push these two sides together, it'll release it." A slot slid out, the new element sending out pulses of energy.

"Doesn't that exhaust the power supply?" Rogers. Again.

"Normally, if he just used it to power the magnet, he would only need one core in his entire life time," Banner filled in helpfully. He had far more patience than Tony. "So the energy that it's losing now is so minimal that it doesn't make a difference."

"Yes! Thank you. Glad someone else knows what's going on around here," Tony said. "The problem comes when I hook my suit up to the arc reactor. This little thing is what powers everything in my suit. It exhausts the energy supply in the reactor. _Usually _I have warning when it's going to fail."

"But you do not always have this luxury in mid-battle, yes?" Thor asked.

"Right. I can't exactly carry these things around with me. The element is stable, yes, but fragile." He slid the element back into the reactor, which lit up again. "If the reactor goes dead, it could also have sustained too much damage to function properly. In that case, the entire reactor has to be changed. Now comes Pepper's favorite part, where I have to take off my shirt." He flashed a smirk at Pepper, who did not return said smirk. Not that it stopped Tony from maintaining his. He pulled his shirt off, exposing the arc reactor. It gave off a slight hum as it worked. "This is fairly easy. Just give it a twist to pull it out, hook these wires up to the new reactor, and pop it in. I'll usually wake up right after the new one gets put in."

"That's it?" Steve asked. "Don't you think that there should be more precautions to pulling out the device that's keeping you alive?"

Tony stared at him. "What for?"

"So, you know, people can't just take it out when you're down and leave you for dead."

"Well, if I was weak enough for them to take the reactor, there are surer was to kill me," Tony said, still looking at Steve like he was crazy.

"Captain," Pepper said from the back, speaking for the first time. "Most people don't even know what the arc reactor is. On the off chance that someone has seen it, they think it's a fancy piece of metal. Out of the people who actually know what it does, very few people know that it can fail, or that it's removable."

"Yes, the stunning woman in the back makes a valid point as well. Anyway, on the off chance that you need to change either part of the device and Pepper doesn't happen to be around…" Tony quickly mentally went through all of the checks he had put in place on the devices before he finally forced himself to continue. "There are extras in several places. I keep two reactors and two element cartridges wherever there are suits. On the ship, they're contained in the room where my suits are. If you need one from there, enter and ask Jarvis for it. I keep several here, down in my workshop. You have to ask Jarvis for permission into the lab, but they'll be underneath the counter of my work desk. The majority of the extras are out in California. Those ones are kept within one of the robots. Jarvis has to power him on. Then there is a catch at the back of his base. And I know exactly how many reactors and element cartridges are in each location," Tony said with a glare at the two agents.

"You still don't trust S.H.I.E.L.D," Natasha accused.

"No I don't. And hacking Jarvis isn't an option anymore; I've upgraded his systems. Jarvis is also hooked up to the arc reactor. If he knows the reactor doesn't need changing, he won't give you access to these areas." He didn't mention the numerous other traps he had put in Jarvis' system so that he knew exactly who tried to access what. Even on the off chance that they hacked into Jarvis, the data would be stored on a hidden drive. The hacker would have to sort through the whole system to find it.

"Tony, maybe you should tell them how to use Jarvis?" Pepper said pointedly.

"Oh, right. If you haven't figured it out by now, Jarvis is everywhere. If you ever need something, just say his name and what you need. If he can't help you, he'll call Pepper or I. That's all I have for you. Now get out of my house!"

"You do know that you made this our house as well, right?" Natasha asked as she pulled Clint to his feet. Tony had no doubt they were going to go report to Fury and tell him everything, including the upgraded systems and Tony's little faith in S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Then get off my floor!" Natasha gave a mocking two finger salute as the two agents left the room.

"Your technology is so very strange. Do you not have people who could do the same thing?" Thor asked.

"People are unreliable. Plus technology doesn't talk back."

"I would have to beg to differ sir. You programmed me to-"

"Mute. And see? I can shut him up whenever I want to." He figured Thor was a lost cause anyway. At least Rogers had a basic knowledge of technology. Thor didn't even have that.

"Perhaps you could give me a more…in-depth analysis of your arc reactor technology some time," Bruce said, cordial as always. No doubt he had been bored through the 1st grade level lecture. Pepper was giving him another pointed look.

"Tell Jarvis if you're ever interested. At least one person here should probably understand the details." Bruce nodded and followed Thor out and leaving Steve as the last member left.

"Tony…thank you. For telling us about the arc reactor. I know that you're…that you don't like to share information like that."

"Paranoid is the word you were looking for," Tony said casually.

"Careful is actually the word I was going for. I read the file S.H.I.E.L.D has on you. The shrapnel in your heart is from your own missile. You don't want it happening again."

"It won't," Tony said, picking up the reactor from where he had left it on the table. "I'll make sure of that, even if I have to fight S.H.I.E.L.D for it. Good night Steve. I think I earned my bed tonight, wouldn't you Ms. Potts?" He hooked his arm around her, heading back off to the lab. She smiled, so he knew he had done something right.

"I would agree Mr. Stark." She tilted her head up to catch his lips against hers. "Thank you for doing that. It means a lot to me."

"A lot to you? You already knew all of that, and more."

"Now I have one less thing to worry about when you're away. I won't be constantly waiting for the phone call from Steve that your arc reactor failed and they don't know what to do."

"Anything for you." It was the first time he had told a woman that and actually meant it. For some reason it felt right. "Anything for you."


	7. In The End

**Here's the last little installment. It's very short and sweet (but hopefully still good). After this, we move on to the team's perspectives. Whose would you like to see first? **

* * *

When Pepper entered the Avengers' home and she heard noise coming from the living room, she knew that the team was home from whatever mission Fury had sent them out on. She took a deep breath in relief—there had been no phone call from the team or Tony, so she could assume that everybody had made it out alright. She dropped her keys on the bar behind where the majority of the team was sitting and watching the news.

"Hello," she greeted with a soft smile she reserved for people she liked. Clint and Natasha were sharing the couch, while Steve was sprawled across the floor and Bruce occupied a chair, idly turning his glasses. They all turned to give her smiles or nods. "You seem to be missing two of your members."

Clint brushed her comment away with a wave. "Thor is spending then night with Jane," he said.

"Don't worry Ms. Potts," Bruce said with an understanding smile. "We brought Tony home with us."

"We sent him to bed," Natasha said without looking back at her. Steve pulled himself up from the floor.

"I'll walk you up there," Steve offered. Pepper was about to say that she didn't need someone to walk her to her _bedroom _but Steve look preoccupied, so she figured lending an ear to whatever was bothering him wouldn't set her back too much. "We got back early this morning," Steve started.

"Has he made adjustments to the suit yet?" Pepper asked.

"Natasha forced him to bed right away. He's pretty much okay physically, just some cuts and bruises, but he's the only one who can monitor for life signs…"

Pepper sighed. It wasn't the first time they had given her this excuse for Tony's exhaustion. She knew where this was going. Of the five day mission Fury had given them, Tony had been on duty for probably about…four and a half days.

"I really need to get on him about creating something so that he doesn't get stuck doing this," Pepper said. "Has he at least eaten in the last couple days?"

"Natasha force fed him on the trip back." Steve pulled to a stop outside of Tony's room. Pepper made a mental note to thank the spy-turned-assistant-turned-spy later. "We had Jarvis check the arc reactor when we got home and he said that it was still functioning nearly at full capability."

"Steve, you shouldn't feel guilty about driving him to exhaustion," Pepper said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "He knows what's expected of him and you wouldn't be able to tell him to take a break anyway. Thanks for looking after him." She waved her fingers at him, then disappeared into Tony's room.

"Welcome home Ms. Potts," Jarvis' voice said quietly. "Mr. Stark has been sleeping for the last eight hours. Physical health is satisfactory." As expected, Steve hadn't been lying to her. Pepper wondered if Steve had the ability to lie. "Arc reactor is working at 80% capacity."

"Thank you Jarvis," she whispered.

"Pepper?" a groggy voice said from beneath the covers. She moved forward and saw Tony blinking his eyes at her.

"Hey sleepy head," she said, sitting down on the side of the bed. "I was just coming to check on you. You should probably eat again soon."

"Mmm, later." Pepper rolled her eyes.

"Then I leave you to your sleep." She kissed his forehead, then relented and kissed his lips before standing up. She hadn't got more than a step when his hand clamped around her wrist.

"Don't leave. Stay," he said, his pouty two-year old voice coming through. A smile played at her lips. Whiny Tony? Not so fun. Whiny, sleep deprived Tony? Much more endearing.

"Stay and do what? Watch you sleep?" Yet she complied, slipping underneath the covers and curling up against his chest.

"Know you love the view," Tony said from where his head where buried in her hair. She tapped the arc reactor lazily.

"The view from down here is awfully bright."

"Mmm," Tony said and she could tell, seconds later, that he had drifted back to sleep, his arms wrapped tightly around her. She sighed, realizing he had effectively trapped her. Still, it wasn't all bad. The last five days had been exhausting while she divvied her attention between hers and Tony's part of Stark Industries, monitoring her phone for a phone call from Tony, Fury, or the team, and constantly having the news in the background everywhere she went, just in case their mission made news. It was nice just to lay there and relax. Tony and the team might get sent out on another mission tomorrow, for all she knew (though if they were, Fury would definitely get to hear her two cents). But for now, the team was home, she was home, and Tony was here, alive, with his arms wrapped around her. Sometimes, she couldn't ask much more than that.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed this little arc as much as I did! Remember to let me know which team member you would like to see first :)**

**Thank you to all my readers and reviewers! **


	8. Thor

**Ugh. Survey said that everyone wanted to see Thor first, and I really struggled to write his point of view. After all, he and Tony don't really have much of a relationship in the movie. However, I'm following this one up with Clint's, who I had an amazing time writing (I know that Clint and Tony have even less of a relationship in the movie, but their relationship is so much easier to see! And so much more fun!), so hopefully that one will make up for this display of...not so good writing. Enjoy!**

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Thor has not known Tony Stark for very long. He had never heard of the man until Iron Man attacked him on the mountains when he confronted Loki. Then they were busy, trying to stop the end of the Earth and he was forced to bring his brother back to the Allfather in hope that his father could make his brother see reason. He returned to Earth a month ago and will be staying for a long time, and has spent a lot of that time around the man of iron, and has picked up on some of his traits that are…stranger (he believes that is the polite term).

Tony Stark is hopelessly in love. He is usually the one they send in when they have to have a face-to-face confrontation because he shows no fear, as a proper warrior should, and he is very tricky with his words. Thor has seen him face down his brother, "mad scientists" (this is what Clint and Tony called them, though Thor is not sure whether he should trust them when Bruce is rolling his eyes in the background), and even while facing down another of Thor's people, The Enchantress. Yet Tony has never been able to stand up to Pepper Potts. The team has gotten used to seeing the fiery red head storming into the house, her eyes dead set on Tony Stark. And then the man who wears the suit of steel usually discreetly, as Tony calls it, runs from the room. Thor knows this feeling though, because he too, has faced the stormy eyes the seemingly delicate female can give.

(Thor makes the rare visit down to Tony's lab one day. _Whoa there big guy, _Tony says as the strange voice opens the door for him, _you were actually almost quiet for once. What's up? _When Thor explains his predicament- that Jane Foster is not talking to him- Tony throws his head back and laughs. _I know just what you need._ He gives Thor a few simple directions- _dress in one of the suits I bought you, be ready by seven and Happy will pick you up_- and then tells him he will work some magic. Thor looks over to Bruce, who nods and confirms that Tony's advice is sound. Later that night, when he leads a stunning Jane Foster back to the tower, she is laughing and smiling. Tony stops by long enough to introduce himself before disappearing back into his lab.)

Tony Stark's does not think before he acts. In this, he is like Thor. When they enter a fight, the first thing Tony tries is blasting everything in sight, no matter how intelligent the plan sounds. This results in many injuries for him, the majority of which he recovers from quickly. Only once he is sure that blasting things will not work does Tony draw back and form a plan. In this he is most like his brother. He knows the ways of manipulation and he is not afraid to use them, especially when his team is on the line. Thor wonders if this _is _Tony's strategy—that he distracts his opponent with his attack while he thinks of the right way to defeat his enemy.

(_As much fun as you're having getting smacked around Tony, maybe it's time for a new plan,_ Captain America instructs them as the monster sends Iron Man through another wall. Seconds later Iron Man pops back up, like nothing had ever happened. _Already did, _Iron Man says, and the entire team can hear his smile. _There's a weak spot, just underneath his chin. Think you can nail it Clint? I'll distract it with more of my "getting smacked around." _Before anyone can say anything, Tony is gone, zooming towards the monster again. Later, when the team is making their quick getaway, leaving S.H.I.E.L.D to clean up their mess, Clint asks how Tony found the weak point. _Why do you think I was getting so close to him? Shh, don't start with me Jarvis. I know it was you who was doing the scans that found the weak spot. Yes, I do appreciate your work. No, I-you know what? Mute._)

Tony Stark is highly intelligent. Thor thought that Earth was far behind the times of his own people, but he was mistaken; both are highly advanced in different areas. Earth is more advanced in "mech-anics" (as everyone here seems to call it), and Tony is the most advanced of all of Earth's people. Even Bruce will grudgingly agree that Tony is one of the top minds in his multiple fields, and Thor trusts Bruce to speak the truth a lot more than he trusts Tony. He spends most of his free time deep within his lab, where Thor does not venture very often. On the chance that Tony actually allows him in, he is assaulted by numbers, equations, and words that Thor cannot hope to understand.

(Thor once was telling stories of Asgard when he mentioned the Bifrost. Tony attacked him instantly, wanting to know everything he knew about it, which Thor was disgraced to say was a pitiful amount. If Loki was there…In the end, Thor agreed to see if he could bring back the man in charge of rebuilding the Bifrost the next time he was home so that Tony could learn a new field (_Oh, Fury is going to love this one, _Clint said in the background). Tony promises to hold him to that.)

Tony Stark is paranoid. Thor recognizes the same closeness in the team as he had with his friends back home—all of them would die for each other. Yet Tony watches all of them closely and does not fully trust any of them. He has back doors in all of his systems (a strange thing that Tony has not yet been able to fully explain, but he understands the general point of them), and maintains the ability to lock down the entire tower, should the need call for it. Sometimes Thor wonders if that is why Tony offered them his place to live; this way he can keep an eye on all of them and know what they're doing. It is his way of keeping control over this large part of his life.

(Pepper Potts once explained that Tony was betrayed by someone he loved like a father. She acts like Thor will not understand, but he does. He, too, has been betrayed by a family member. He knows what it feels like when someone close to the heart looks at you and the only thing you can see is hate. He knows how easily a heart can get lost when someone you trust is no longer by your side. So while Thor may not approve of his…caution, Pepper always protests, he can certainly understand it.)


	9. Clint

**As promised, here is Clint's view on Tony. I really loved writing this one :D After this, it's going to be Natasha, then Bruce, and then ending with Steve. I'm super happy with all the reviews I've gotten and I just noticed that it's close to 100! That makes me even more happy (it's the most I've ever received on a story :D). **

**As usual, read, review, and most importantly, enjoy!**

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Clint didn't really know Tony before the whole "Avengers, Earth's greatest heroes" thing, but now that he does, he wonders where they've been all of each other's lives. Not that he would tell that to Tony, but there's just something about the way that they fall right into an easy friendship. They complain about each other, rip on each other, and generally act like they hate each other's guts, but Clint has never had so much fun with a conversation before (though Natasha definitely wishes they had never met). So he starts spending more time with Tony. They go out on the town, they drag race cars, and Clint acts as Tony's test dummy with new arrow ideas. And slowly, Clint starts to see more of who Tony really is.

Like how Tony has a way with words. Most people would sarcastically scoff at that statement, but they don't understand how Clint is using the sentence. Tony throws around words like he does money, but each word is said purposefully, to get the biggest rise or the most loyalty out of whomever he's talking to. When Tony doesn't want to do something, he can walk into that room, insult the person in charge for 30 seconds, and get thrown out. They think it's a punishment, but really, it's exactly what Tony wants. He doesn't _want _to be there and no amount of disappointed or angry looks from a congressman is going to make him feel guilty about leaving.

(_Stark, what are you still doing here? _Fury had asked one day while Clint was hanging out with Tony in his lab. Apparently he had gotten (another) command to appear before the DOD and he was pointedly ignoring it. Fury ordered Clint to get him there and while Tony had no problem ignoring orders from Fury, Clint couldn't really get away with it. So he had thrown Tony in a jet and carted his ass off to D.C. Five minutes later, Tony stalked back out, a smug grin on his face. _Like taking candy from a baby, _he told Clint, high-fiving him as he entered the jet again.)

Tony is an excellent business man. In no possible scenario that Clint can image would Tony ever end up anywhere then where he is now. Even if Tony hadn't been born into money and fame, Tony would have easily made a name for himself. The genius might have been inherited (but he's pretty sure genius doesn't work that way), but Tony's personality (the ego, the easy confidence, even the child-like attention span) is all his. Part of his success comes from his ability to talk about everything and nothing, but another part of it comes from just knowing how to read people. Clint thinks that if he ever set his mind to it, he would be just as good at reading people as Tasha, not that he really expects Tony to take up the initiative any time soon.

(_Does Fury know he should fire Thomas in the weapons department? _When Clint gives Stark a blank look, Tony just responds with a _check up on it_. And Clint does. And then brings the case to Fury, who promptly fires, then imprisons, Thomas. Turns out, the guy was a lot smarter than he seemed and he frequently eavesdropped on Bruce and Tony's conversation, writing down what information he heard and selling it to people S.H.I.E.L.D would rather not have knowing their secrets. When it all cooled down, Tony admitted to having suspicions when the guy appeared to be following them once and then, after a two second conversation with the kid, confirmed his suspicions. Tony shrugged like anyone could have gotten that, but Thomas had interacted daily with at least 30 people and none of them had caught it.)

Tony uses his child-like behavior as a front. Oh sure, Tony like shiny things (namely cars), had the attention span of a six year old, and the curiosity of a toddler, but he uses it as a way of testing people. He throws "temper tantrums", defies orders, and in general, pisses people off to push them, to see what they'll do. How he works with the person after that all depends on how they react to his push. He did it to everyone when he meets them, everyone except Clint because really, even Tony knows the best time to push someone is _not_ in the middle of a battle. Clint still isn't sure what kind of reaction he's looking for, but apparently the team seems to have passed the test since they're all living in his house, and he doesn't push them as much anymore (except for Fury. Tony seems to take infinite pleasure in pushing Fury at every moment of the day).

(He's in the lab with Tony again when Jarvis drily announces that he has a call from Hammer Industries. Justin Hammer himself is on the other line, and in a weak, fake, joking voice, carries on a 15 minute conversation by himself, a mix between yelling at Tony for taking his military contracts (again) and gloating about how he was released from jail after only a month because he has friends in high places too. By the time Tony manages to get him off the phone, his mood has turned decidedly darker. _I've been pushing that guy since I was a kid, _Tony tells him, _and he's never once pushed back. Never trust a guy that doesn't push back._ For a second, everything is serious in the lab. Then Tony adopts an overly distressed face. _Plus, he calls me Anthony. That's never forgivable._)

Tony is great at threatening. Anyone who has spent time with the playboy Tony would never believe that. Even Clint didn't believe it, based off of the files S.H.I.E.L.D had on Stark. And then Steve came and got him and Tasha and told them Tony had flown off ahead of them to go "stall" Loki, which ended up turning into more of a threatening-stall. Clint still didn't really believe it until he saw it again. Tony could achieve this cold, calculating look in his eyes and all humor- even his ego- disappeared from his expression. His words became direct, and his tone was completely devoid of any emotion. He rarely made such serious threats, but when he did, they were promises.

(Clint remembered a time when someone had kidnapped Pepper and thought that they could blackmail Tony into handing over numerous weapons. When they had called, Tony had gotten deathly still, his words clear and pointed. It had set Clint on edge, and he knew it had the same effect on the kidnappers. Still, they had insisted on carrying through the deal. The only reason any of them were still alive by the end of it was because Pepper had convinced Tony, Clint, and Steve that it wasn't worth it.)

Tony is paranoid. He hacks into every system, especially S.H.I.E.L.D's. Clint thinks that he prefers to target S.H.I.E.L.D because he is directly associated with them and wants to know what he's getting into. Clint has walked in before as Tony went over shipment log after shipment log, carefully scanning to make sure everything had been properly approved and got where it was supposed to be going. Besides that though, Tony doesn't keep many people in his life. Before the team, it was just Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey, but Clint can't really blame him. If he had been betrayed by as many people as Tony has, he would be careful about whom he chose for company too. It amazes Clint how well Tony has adjusted to having the whole team living in his household, but in his defense, the house is huge and Tony spends a lot of his time in his workshop.

(Despite his obvious trust issues, Tony still always has time for them, no matter how much he complains. Steve comes to him when he can't figure out a piece of technology. Thor comes to him to ask about relationship advice (though Clint still isn't sure he's the best one to ask, despite the fact he's the only one of them with something close to a functional relationship). Bruce is always welcome in his workshop to bounce ideas off of him and to get advice on how something should be built. When Tasha needs a new weapon, she turns to Tony. Whenever Clint is bored, Tony is willing to let him just hang out in the workshop, or he'll pack up his stuff and they'll head out to cause havoc and destruction, though never enough to bring Pepper's wrath down on them. And, of course, Tony always has time for Pepper. If it wasn't for her steady hand, Clint thinks he would leave in the middle of a mission, just to spend five minutes with her. )


	10. Natasha

**Natasha's is a in a little different style than the others. Hers was actually the first one I wrote, and I was still trying to find the right way to write it. I decided I liked this way though, so I left it. **

**As always, read, review, and (most importantly) enjoy!**

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Natasha had worked with Stark for several months before the rest of the team had even met him. She had dealt with his egotistical, child-like ways and learned how to handle him. Still, Natasha had a calculating mind, and she began to notice things about Stark that she wondered if the rest of the team had picked up.

Stark hated thunderstorms. Without fail, no matter the where they were stationed, she would find him in his lab, some classic rock band screaming loudly, immersed in some new project. If the storms came at night, he would get up and go down to his lab. He claimed that he was a light sleeper, but Natasha knew from personal experience that he slept like the dead when he found his way to a bed. She wasn't sure how he always got such advanced notice about the storms, but she figured Jarvis could be very accommodating. When he didn't catch them in time, well, she had never seen him leave a room so quickly or so silently.

(She finally figured out that the lightning reminded him of the flash of a bomb, and the thunder reminded him of the many explosions in Afghanistan. The moment of realization had happened when she was walking past Pepper and Stark's room during a storm one night and she had heard Pepper's voice, mostly calm but with a twinge of sadness in it. _Tony, come on, breathe. It's okay, I'm here. You're here. They can't get to you anymore_.)

Along the same line, Stark hated standing water. It's not that he avoided it, because really, that was pretty much impossible when 80% of the world was made up of the stuff. He was certainly wary of it, and between the choice of land and water, he always chose land. His famous suit checks became more pronounced when he had to fly over water and he always chose to fly by himself, rather than in the jet.

(There was a pool in the Avengers' Tower, one that rested on the edge of the building so that the swimmer could look out over the city. Clint and Dr. Banner had decided to just relax one day, and spend the whole day at the pool. Somehow they convinced her to join in with them. They had Jarvis call Stark up, figuring that if anyone wanted to party, it would be him. When he appeared on the deck, he had eyed the water first before turning his attention to his teammates. The decline to party with them had been polite but the smile and banter had been forced. Natasha recognized the look in his eyes—she had seen it in the undercover agents' eyes who had returned from a mission gone wrong. Post-traumatic stress, the psych department called it. Natasha called it an unhealthy attachment to memories.)

Stark literally did not know how to take care of himself. When she had first agreed to work for him (and by she agreed, she means Fury knew he would offer her the job and she had been ordered to accept it), she had thought that Pepper's instructions were a bit over the top. _Remind him to eat, then order him something and place it in front of him a half hour later_. Who needed reminding to eat? And then she had spent her first day at the house with him and discovered that _Tony Stark_ needed someone to tell him to eat. And sleep. And shower. And, in general, live his life. He was better about it when there were others around, but sometimes Natasha still found herself bringing him food and carting him off to bed.

(Natasha remembers one time they had gotten halfway through a briefing before they noticed it was too quiet. She was sent to find Stark, but she already knew where to go. Sure enough, he was in his lab, working on new modifications for the Iron Man suit, pinging ideas off of Jarvis at the speed of light. There were dark circles under his eyes and cups of coffee littered all over the lab. When asked the last time he had eaten and slept, he gave the answers of a day and three days respectively. Yet he was looking at _her_ like _she _was the insane one when she ordered his ass to bed.)

She won't deny that Stark is intelligent. She might even go so far as to say that he's a genius. But she does know that he constantly has ideas running in his head, calculations for flight trajectories, designs for more controllable flight stabilizers, even just new layouts for his workshop that would make moving around a lot more efficient. She thinks this is what contributes to his inability to take care of himself. Sometimes she wonders if he really does have a normal attention span, but he holds the thoughts of six people and that's why he can never stay focused. She can tell when he's trying to force his thoughts to slow down so he can pay attention. Maybe that's why she prefers Iron Man to Tony Stark—Iron Man needs to have the ability to process six different thoughts at one time, but Tony Stark could do without such abilities.

(She remembers being in the middle of a briefing, mildly distracted by the sketch Stark was doodling on an almost invisible screen. She wondered if he was trying to hide it from Fury, but she doubted it; it wasn't Stark's style. Then, he just stood up and left, leaving his doodle behind. Later, when Natasha found him, she offered him the design and asked if he needed it, he looked like he had forgotten all about it. Which, in fact, he had. Instead of inspiration on the project he had been drawing, he had made a sudden breakthrough on a completely unrelated project.)

Natasha knew Stark was paranoid. It really didn't take much to realize that. He had trust issues, but anyone could relate that back to being betrayed by the closest thing he really had to a father. He guarded all his designs fiercely, especially his military and weapon designs, but there was a reason the arc reactor was in his chest. What was harder to see was that he didn't always trust himself. She thinks it's why he's always preferred to be alone, because when he's alone nobody else's emotions, thoughts, _lives_ are his responsibility. There was just him, and he didn't have enough self-respect to really care about what he did to himself. But that was before, before he had a relationship and a team to look after. And now she knows he struggles every day with their company, even though it was him who asked them there. She sees this.

(She saw this when he told them where the arc reactors were, and how to use them. She saw the back up plans and theories and safety precautions running through his eyes. If it was up to him, they would never know how to save his life. But there is one person that Stark has never been able to resist and she knows it's for Pepper that he does tell them.)


	11. Bruce

**Lab bromance time! I love me some lab bromance :D Also, all of your reviews? So awesome! I love all of you for all of your support and encouragement! After this, I'll do Steve (which I'm working on finishing) and then (by request of Creative Spark) I am going to attempt to do a chapter focused on Fury (no promises on how that turns out!). **

**As always, read, review, and of course, enjoy!**

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Ever since Loki had been defeated, Bruce has been spending his days in the Stark tower. When he told the other Avengers where they could find him, they all grimaced and gave him pitying looks, but really, Bruce doesn't mind. Tony, despite his enormous ego and eccentricities, is actually kind and willing to open his house and, more importantly, his lab to Bruce. And if there is one thing Bruce has missed about civilization, it's having the ability to work on new projects, old projects, anything really, that tests his mind. They're working on rebuilding the Stark tower, forming it into a land base for the Avengers team, so Bruce shares Tony's lab until his own is built. This results in a lot of time spent with the billionaire genius, and Bruce begins to understand a lot more about fellow lab partner.

For instance, Bruce learns that Tony is smart in a completely different sense from him. Bruce writes down calculation after calculation, sketches out designs, and works on one idea at a time. Tony works on at least three different projects at one time. Bruce thinks this is why he has all of his robots there to help him, acting as three other sets of hands. Along with that, Tony doesn't sketch. In fact, Tony is a terrible sketcher. Bruce think it's not because he doesn't have the artistic talent for it, but that Tony literally can't see things in 2-D. His mind is constantly working in 3-D and that's why he has all of his holograms. As for calculations, well Bruce thinks that he doesn't need to do them, because his mind has already mentally done them. He wouldn't be surprised if Tony _sees _the results of the calculations—the angle a piece of equipment needs to be at, the heat needed to weld two different types of metal together, or the force needed to propel him 100 feet in the air in three seconds.

(_You should recalibrate the receiver on that if you want it to pick up the frequency of gamma rays you're looking for, _Tony had told him one day in the lab. Tony hadn't looked up from his own project, nor had he even asked what Bruce was working on. Bruce looked back over his calculations to see that Tony was, in fact, right. When he asked Tony later how he even knew what Bruce was working on, he said that he had checked it out last night while he was working and the rest of the house was, you know, sleeping. Bruce wanted to ask how he knew what it was just by looking at it, but Bruce figured he knew because he was, well, because he was Tony Stark.)

Along those same lines though, Tony did not think before he acted in the lab. He didn't double check his calculations because Tony didn't believe he could be wrong. This usually resulted in things being blown up, set on fire, or both. Sometimes Bruce thought they were lucky that Tony didn't work with radioactive materials very often. At least when he did he was actually semi-careful with them (though Bruce still took the day off when Tony was working with them in the lab). Tony worked a lot with improvisation as well, adding things to his projects without much second thought. This also contributed to a lot of the explosions.

(Bruce has heard horror stories from Pepper about experiments gone wrong, like the first time he built a flight stabilizer and blasted a wall apart in the lab, or when he was trying to build the new element residing in his chest and directed his laser right across a cabinet of explosive materials that, luckily, had been emptied the day before. So when Bruce looks up and sees Tony's face brighten at a sudden idea while working on the Iron Man suit, Bruce makes sure he's far away, where nothing can startle him into, well, losing control of the other guy.)

Tony isn't scared of him. This is a new thing for Bruce because he's never met someone before who wasn't scared of him or the…other guy. But Tony isn't. Bruce thinks this is why Tony offered him a place to stay, and this is probably why he accepted. It's comfortable, living with people who aren't constantly watching you or flinching from you. Bruce isn't sure _why _he isn't scared of him, but he thinks it has a little to do with his ego and a lot with his ability to just not care. Tony thinks he can handle the, well, the other guy and Bruce isn't sure if this is true or not. _He _has a certain affinity for Tony or else he wouldn't have jumped across buildings to catch him. That's not to say that Tony has stopped trying to break his control, but Bruce knows that Tonyknows what will really make him lose control and has avoided pushing him too far.

(They were working in the ship's lab one day when the helicarrier was attacked. It was the surprise of suddenly falling into the wall across the room that set him off. Fury had ordered Tony out of there, but Tony had ignored said order and somehow talked the other guy into a more controlled state of mind before sending him out to the fight. To this day, Bruce doesn't know how Tony does it.)

Tony is paranoid. Bruce wonders if Fury, or anyone really, knows exactly how many systems Tony has hacked his way into. He knows that Tony has hacked S.H.I.E.L.D's systems far more often than Fury knows about. Most people, when they want information, turn to Google. Not Tony. Tony finds the original source of information, even if he has to hack into a foreign government's database to get it. It's not even about having knowledge of the things happening around him. Bruce has seen him reading classified files on candidates that lost their elections and undercover missions in China, Italy, or even little Belgium. Bruce isn't sure what he's looking for, but he thinks that Tony isn't looking for anything _specifically_, he's just making sure that he has a grasp on the entire world.

(_Pepper, why don't you stay home today? I'll go into the office and make excuses for you, _Tony had told Pepper one day. She had protested a little, but it had been months since she had gotten her last day off and eventually she accepted it. Two hours later, she was glued to the T.V. when the news came on that the Stark Tower Tony had flown to had been attacked. Ten minutes later, they had confirmed that no one was hurt and that the terrorists had been caught thanks to Iron Man. The night before, Bruce had seen Tony reading an updated report from the C.I.A. about a sect of a terrorist organization called The Ten Rings.)


	12. Steve

**I managed to get a breakthrough with this piece so I finished off for all of you to read! It's a little longer, but I figured no one would mind :) It was weird because when I started, I was struggling for ideas and then they just started coming until I had all of this written down. I'm not sure where I'm going with this story after this, but I did say I would try to do a Fury chapter. I also got a request to do Coulson (still love him. Soooo much) and to do Tony himself, so it'll probably be one of those three!**

**Also, I just wanted to take this moment to seriously and sincerely thank all of you who have reviewed. You bring a smile to my face every time I read a review. I love knowing that my work is appreciated and I love making all of you happy! **

**Like always, read, review, and enjoy :D**

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Steve returns from his road trip after the fight with Loki to his apartment that S.H.I.E.L.D has provided for him in Brooklyn, but finds out that this is the last place he wants to be. He thought he was done with attachments, but as he sat in his quiet apartment he realized that he was actually missing the team. So he did the most insane thing he can think of—he moved in with them. For the first couple weeks, he spends the majority of his time observing the catastrophe that is the Avengers' tower; more specifically, the son of his long ago friend. And he starts to notice some things.

Tony is a man of the future. He's not just referring to the fact that Tony is constantly creating new and developing technology. He means Tony doesn't talk about his past, and he doesn't limit it to a certain time in his past. He doesn't talk about his childhood, his time at college, his early days at Stark Industries, or his time before Iron Man. The only exceptions Tony makes are for past experiments and his many (public) scandals. Whenever someone raises a question about Tony's past, he skillfully deflects it or skims around the issue. Tony is constantly moving forward, and he threatens to leave everyone else behind. So instead, the rest of the team races to catch up with him, learning quickly that it's not even worth looking back.

(Fury had warned him not to go looking for answers about Howard from Tony. Pepper had explained it to him: _Howard wasn't around a lot when Tony was growing up and when he was, well…he and Tony didn't really see eye-to-eye. Tony just wanted to make him happy and Howard wanted him to be…well, I would find your answers elsewhere. _But Steve wanted to know what had happened to his old friend that made everyone give him such severe warnings. So when he found Tony drinking one night, he decided to risk it. Tony had been putting the drink to his lips when Steve asked and it was the first time he had ever seen the other man spill a drink. He set the glass down on the table, staring at it long enough that Steve began to wonder if he was going to answer. _He was a good man, _Tony said suddenly, _but never a father._ With that, he drained the rest of his drink, grabbed the bottle, and disappeared into his workshop. Steve never asked again—the pain in Tony's eyes didn't belong there.)

At the same time, Tony is a lot like his father. Steve, of course, has never said this to Tony, but he recognizes a lot in him that he saw in Howard. They have the same intelligence and, on a more specific level, they display their genius in the same manner. Howard was always messing with new things, learning what worked and what didn't by doing the actual experiment rather than doing calculations. Steve has never seen Tony sit down and write out calculations when he can just build the thing and try it out. They both share similar eccentrics, complete with not _really _knowing how to act around other people. And they have the same charisma, the same thing that draws people to them, the same ability to talk people around in circles until they've forgotten what they originally asked.

(_Duck! _Steve hears when he walks in the lab. Bruce had warned him Tony was working on something new. The wall behind him crumbles slightly as the laser from the suit powers down. When Steve asks him just what in the hell he's doing, Tony answers him from the depths of the suit's glove. _I was working on the thrusters when I realized that I could create a system that shuts down parts of the suit so that more power can be diverted to the lasers. _Steve questions if he did any calculations this time before he tested it, and Tony emerges from his work long enough to stare at him like _he's _crazy. _Why would I do calculations when I can just test it? _The glove fires again when Tony pushes something he shouldn't be pushing and Steve just barely manages to duck out of the way. He almost yells out _Howard! _but stops himself just in time. Tony seems to forget he's even there, so he takes a safe seat in the lab and watches Tony create a piece of art.)

Tony is fearless. Steve has watched the playbacks from Tony's "threatening" talk with Loki and the only time he actually shows fear when he's about to get thrown out the window. Even then, though, the sense of thrill is stronger in his eyes than the fear. Since then, Steve has seen Tony face down rival company heads, villains, and Fury, never backing down the tiniest bit, even when they attack him personally. Steve isn't sure whether this is a good thing or not. His fearlessness is what allows him to make so many advances in his field, but it's also the reason why he frequently walks out of his lab with cuts, bruises, and burns. It's what leads him to leap without looking and damn all the consequences.

(They're stuck in a building that's collapsed on them, him, Tony, and Clint. Clint is passed out, he has a broken arm and his leg is stuck under a rock, and Tony is suffering a brutal concussion. He can barely form two words in one breath. The only light is coming from Tony's arc reactor. Steve has never liked being trapped (being useless) and he's close to panicking. Yet the few words Tony does manage to string together are all designed to put Steve at ease. Later, when they're recovering in the medical ward, Steve asks how he does it; how he manages to not feel fear. Tony shrugged. _I still fear, _he admits, and Steve wonders if he's still suffering the intense headaches the doctors warned him would be part of his everyday life for the next week. _I just learned to bury it so far down that not even I can find it until it's too late._ It doesn't really make sense to Steve, but Tony's asleep when he goes to ask what he means.)

Tony suffered from PTSD. He had never been diagnosed with it, though there was a warning in Tony's file that he was…twitchy sometimes. Besides that though, Steve had seen enough soldiers suffering from it to recognize it. Sometimes he would walk into the lab and see Tony staring off into space with Jarvis trying to catch his attention again. Sometimes loud noises made him jump and put him on edge. He seemed to be able to control it for the most part, because it never seemed to affect him during a battle. Steve wondered if it had to do with the fact that Tony was active in battle, that he could fight and defend, instead of being submissive, like he had been forced to in Afghanistan.

(Steve knows Tony doesn't really like sleeping in the first place. Pepper has assured him this was a habit even before he came back from captivity. However, he wasn't surprised when he walked into the living room at 5 in the morning to see Tony passed out on the couch. After all, Tony was still human and even humans couldn't go four days with only a few hours of sleep. From his twitching and muttering, Steve guessed it wasn't a good dream, so he decided to wake him up. He had barely set a hand on Tony's shoulder before the man is up and stumbling away from him, his hands raised in defenselessness. The blind panic on Tony's face nearly kills Steve. As Tony tries to blink away whatever memory he was stuck in, Steve takes a step back, raising his own hands in response. _Tony, _he says, talking softly and calmly like they had taught him in the army, _take a deep breath. You need to remember you're not over there anymore. You're safe, in New York. _It takes another five minutes for Steve to talk Tony out of his flashback completely. Steve is a little disappointed when Tony pulls himself to his feet, his hands still shaking, and makes his way to his lab. _I just…just need to…to work, _Tony says, disappearing into his lab. Really though, Steve can't say he's surprised.)

Tony isn't useless without his suit. He remembers what he says to Tony (_big man in a suit—take that away and what are you?)_ and he learns shockingly quick how wrong he is. Tony is just a different kind of dangerous without the suit—a mental type of dangerous. Tony can outthink his opponent nine times out of ten, predicting their end game and, along the way, how they plan on getting there. When he escaped captivity, he proved that he was smart enough to _form _a weapon to defend himself. Besides that, Tony is manipulative and knows how to read people. He's never admitted it to the man, but Steve always feels better with Tony beside them when they go into battle.

(They're out at a fundraiser that S.H.I.E.L.D. has required them to go to when someone screams out the word _bomb!_ All of the civilians panic and start running every which way. Steve gets Bruce out of there before the stress drives him into a change. When he comes back, Clint and Natasha are trying to direct traffic. Happy runs up to him, briefcase cuffed to his wrist. _Where's Mr. Stark? _he pants. Steve looks around frantically, trying to find the billionaire. Usually, it's easy to pick out the man, but now he can't find him anywhere. _Anyone have eyes on Stark? _he asks as he runs to where the bomb is supposed to be located. Natasha and Clint give him a negative answer but it doesn't matter, he's already found the man. He's kneeling beside the bomb, wires pulled out all over the place. _Sh! _Tony says as he picks through the wires. The time on the bomb flashes _1:00. I'm concentrating. Got something sharp on you? _He holds out his hands expectantly. Natasha appears beside him and places a sharp knife in Tony's hand. _Everyone's out. N.Y.P.D is evacuating the area. Are we sure he knows what he's doing? _ Tony doesn't look back, but he provides his smart ass attitude anyway. _So little trust. Now is it the green wire to diffuse the bomb or the yellow? Or maybe the blue one…_Natasha shoots a glare at him and Steve can't blame her. Still, as S.H.I.E.L.D removes the now-diffused bomb, Tony approaches them with a big smile, throwing an arm over Steve's shoulder. _I don't know if anyone ever told you, but I'm kinda a weapons expert._)

Tony is paranoid. Before the team arrived, the majority of his company was electronic, so it doesn't take someone born in this century to realize that he doesn't trust people. But if that wasn't enough, there's always the fact that he doesn't fall in with authority, doesn't take commands, doesn't allow anyone any kind of power over him. He's never met anyone who doesn't care what people's _intentions _are, but only the results. Even though they've been welcomed into the newly fitted Avengers' tower, sometimes he senses that Tony is struggling with their constant presence. At first, he shies away from their group gatherings, disappearing into the lab or to Stark Industries. Slowly, though, his sarcastic comments become something that draws a smile out of even Steve while they're gathered around the kitchen table.

(_Tony, we're making dinner together, _Steve says as he enters the lab. Tony must be in a good mood because he allows Jarvis to let him in. _You should come up and join us. I know for a fact you haven't eaten in a while. _Tony's deep in his work, his body surrounded by the hologram of the suit. He gives an absent minded _uh-huh _but made no obvious of sign that he had actually heard him. _Tony, _he repeats with just a little more authority in his voice. Tony automatically reacts to it, despite his hatred on hearing it. _No one's seen you for a week. Come up for some air. _Suddenly Tony's throwing out excuses about how he's been busy, about how he's got a really good idea and he'll lose it if he leaves (though no one ever takes him seriously when he says that. He just has impulse control issues), but Steve has always been good at reading nervousness because he's always been so prone to it. He sees it now in Tony. He's nervous to join the entire group, people who are getting too close. Steve gives him a smile. _Just this once. _After that, Tony is always at the table when they have group dinners.)


	13. Tony

**So the good news: there's a new chapter! (yay and such things like that!). However, it feels a little incomplete, so I may do a second chapter on Tony if sudden inspiration strikes me with something I missed. **

**The bad news: this will be the chapter for a long, long time. On Monday I will be taking off on a month-long study abroad trip to Brazil (so if I have any Brazil readers out there-I'm coming to you!). BUT! I promise that this story is not dead. I repeat-IT'S NOT DEAD. I _will _be coming back to it as soon as I come home. I even have Fury's chapter started! **

**Also, to May Eve, I offer you this in return for your review-I will finish out this Paranoid story arc with Fury and Coulson, and then I will start a new story with a plot line in it (I've even got an idea started!). Will that be okay? **

**Saffa-I've thought about it, but I'm not sure I could really grasps everybody's character as well as I can Tony's. After all, Stark has two movies plus Avengers, so we've gotten lots of time to know about him :P However, I will put thought into it for the next month, and see what if it's possible :)**

**TheGoldenTrioLivesOn-The idea is that I will do a chapter for each of those three characters. I'm struggling a little bit on Fury's, and I'm working on another piece so I can get more familiar with Coulson. **

**Iampsychowriter-I just feel like I should say goodnight to you now, because I always seem to update these stories when it's very late, wherever you're from :)**

**To everybody who told me that they loved the story, I just want to say that I love you guys! You're always so inspiring to me and always a great encouragement. I hope that I got everybody's review!**

**As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

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Tony has gotten up close and personal with himself on many different occasions. He's stripped himself bare so many times that sometimes he's surprised there's anything left of his disguise. He can feel his teammate's watching gazes, feel them judging him, trying to tear him apart, figure him out. He should have been ready for it really, but it's been awhile before he's had somebody around him constantly. He could save them a lot of time though, because they can't see anything that he's never found before.

Tony is selfish. He looks out for himself, because if there's anything he's learned over the years, it's that the one thing that will never change is his existence. Of course, then he had found Pepper and discovered that yes, he probably could continue to live on after Pepper, but it wouldn't really be living. And now the team is here, slowly working their way into his house and his heart (god that's so cheesy). So now Tony is still looking out for himself, but now "himself" includes Pepper, Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Thor, and even the Capsicle. And he guards his possessions very fervently.

(He spends the first month after the New York battle tying up some loose ends. He knows S.H.I.E.L.D is protecting Bruce, but it seems like more of a side thought, so Tony contacts everyone he knows has been gunning for Bruce or The Hulk and dares them to touch him. Iron Man may be a heavy hitter on the battlefield, but everyone knows Tony Stark can take down a person (and their company) as easily as he breathes. He specifically adds in a landing pad on the new tower for Thor alone, so he can land somewhere with a little more certainty when he's commuting between worlds. For Clint and Natasha, he offers them sanctuary, away from the people on the helicarrier who continue to stare at Clint, as if he's going to attack them at any moment. Knowing Clint will need some more time to put himself back together, he hands Natasha one of his credit cards. _Go somewhere warm. And deserted. Definitely deserted. And bring me back a souvenir! _She just gives him a small, thankful smile, and throws a bag at Clint, disappearing into one of Tony's less loved cars. For Steve, he has something a little more memorable. His father had started rebuilding Steve's favorite motorcycle and Tony had finished it once he heard they had dug the Cap out. He throws him the keys and tells him to have a good time. For Pepper, he offers only what he has always offered—his heart. And an empty house. An empty, broken house.)

Tony is a genius. Oh sure, he brags about it all the time, but this one at least has truth with it. Even though he didn't really grow up _around _his father, he grew up with stories of his dad and that highly influenced what he grew up doing. So instead of comic books and playing Cowboys and Indians, Tony plays with circuit boards and motorcycles. Cars were really what got him into mechanics and mechanics led to physics. And Tony wanted more. He always wanted more. So he invaded his dad's personal space until he got fed up with pushing Tony out and just built him his own place to work. And then he hoarded everything until he had learned everything he could from those around him. After that, he worked off of instinct and experiments. People told him that he had a weird way of inventing. They expected him to sit at some table, writing out calculations and double checking his work. Well, if that's how they worked on creating something new, it was no wonder that they weren't at the top of their field. You had to be able to _see _the end product to really understand what you were doing.

(Jarvis was his first invention. The original version of him had been made when he was 14. After that, he created all of his holograms, because being limited to 2-D was seriously a drag. He pictured what he needed in 3-D, so it only made sense that he needed to draw it out in 3-D. With Jarvis' organizational skills, he was able to monitor at least three projects at one time. When he moved to M.I.T, both things came with him. There had been a long argument with a professor, then the head of the department, then the dean. It was long and boring and Tony didn't remember anything except the fact that he had his equipment installed that night. From the glares all three men had given him for the rest of his brief M.I.T career, he wondered if they had ever actually given him permission in that argument…)

Tony has a problem with self-destructive tendencies. Of course, when Fury called him out on it after the whole Expo thing, he chalked it up to dying but that wasn't really true. He'd been self-destructive before Afghanistan, before dying, and he is now. After all, he was the one who took the missile up through the portal. Couldn't Thor have done it, being a god and everything? He could have even parted with the missile as soon as he passed through the portal, giving him plenty of time to disappear back to Earth before his reactor gave out. Really, Tony blames it on adrenaline. He thrives off of the stuff, craves it, hell, _breaths_ it. You certainly don't get an adrenaline high by standing on the sidelines. It's either that, or the whole deep-down-he-doesn't-think-he's-worth-it kind of thing. Which Tony doesn't think it takes an expert to see that. Just a red-headed woman with enough heart to make up for his own dysfunctional heart.

(Steve is always harping on him about being reckless. When they're relaxed and in the house, he's always trying to corner Tony, to get him to "talk about it" or some useless shit like that. Boring. And when they're on missions? Well, then Steve is always yelling his head off about how Tony does this and Tony does that. Steve doesn't realize that Tony would rather die than not be in time to save any of his teammates. Thor is a god, one who's biggest goal was to protect mankind. Clint and Natasha are kick-ass agents who deal in death, but Tony knows that they do a lot of good with S.H.I.E.L.D. Bruce? Tony doesn't even have to think about it. Bruce is a good hearted person who didn't deserve what he got in life (even if Tony still admires the Hulk). And then there's Steve. He's the hero everyone's looking for, the man who doesn't _know_ how to do evil. Where does that leave Tony? It's an easy answer, really. He's willing to risk his life because he's the expendable one.)

Tony is paranoid. He jokes about Obie-Obadiah, he means-but he never really got over that betrayal. He wonders if there's something about him that drives people to hate him so much. First his father, than Obadiah. Would it be Pepper one day? Bruce? Who would be the next person to want him dead? And even when he manages to look past that, he see enemies all around him that are gunning for those he's learned to trust and, in some cases, love. So he has Jarvis always keep an eye on his enemies, alerting him to anything strange. He's careful who he works with, which is one of the reasons Jarvis always has at least one foot, so to speak, in S.H.I.E.L.D's system. He keeps close track of the few weapons he sells. The tiniest hint that they were going where they shouldn't be, he'll cut them off, then destroy the weapons. What's left of his heart can't afford to shatter again, so he'll take every precaution he can to make sure it stays safe.

(He protects everyone the best he can, but Bruce's enemies decide Tony isn't a threat, and Hammer just wants to mess with him, so Bruce and Pepper come under threat at the same time. Of course, neither of them knows it. Tony takes Pepper's place at Hammer Industries, where she's supposed to meet Hammer in a "peace treaty" kind of move, but really Hammer plans on kidnapping her and taking her far, far away from Tony. The look on Hammer's face when he walks through the doors is priceless. The looks on his henchmen's faces when he drops the red case at his feet and dons his suit is even better. And then onto Bruce. He sends Steve and Bruce out to dinner under the claim that they're annoying him. Clint and Natasha are on a mission and Thor is with Jane, so he has the house to himself. When the ex-military men try doing stealth mode in his house, they're met by a very unamused Tony. He doesn't even put on his suit, just letting Jarvis direct the house to pick them off one by one. Tony sends them home with a note, reminding whoever is in charge that Bruce is off limits.)

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**Please remember that I _will _be back. Promise! I hope you all have a lovely June!**


	14. Coulson

**A-ha! I bet you guys thought I was never coming back to this story (or the country)! Well, I made it back and had such an awesome time and experience. However, this is about how I feel about this chapter- adfjbioaj. See that? That's word vomit. And that's what I feel like I did on some of this story. I kinda of had a falling out with my inspiration, so we argued a little and this is what we got. I managed to make a truce and get something of a good chapter out, but I apologize if you waited so long and this wasn't up to par. **

**Also, this will probably make some of you angry, because my reason for Coulson still being alive is that I never saw them declare him dead, with fingers checking his pulse. And I don't trust Fury. And I really love Coulson and I refuse to believe he's dead. Mostly that last one anyway. **

**So just one more chapter to go and then I'll be putting up a new story. A little five and one story with Tony and Coulson, and then the team. And then we'll see where my inspiration takes me! Thank you everyone, for all of the reviews and favorites I had waiting for me when I came back! It made me all warm and fuzzy inside :D**

**As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

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Coulson doesn't know how he got charged with being their babysitter. Before the Avengers team started, he and Romanov were equals. Now suddenly, she's on a team and he's in charge of her. Of them. Sometimes it's like being back in high school (_can you believe Thor did that?_) and in other ways it's like owning a day care (_Tony started it!_). So he spends what feels like every waking moment at the tower, watching them to make sure they don't destroy Manhattan. Again. He picks up a few things here and there, about the one he usually has to keep a careful eye on (especially when he's with Barton)—Stark.

Stark is protective. Not just of his ideas and products, but of those Coulson suspects he's beginning to care for. That included Pepper and the whole team (and sometimes even Coulson, depending on how lenient he's been with Stark for the last couple days). Even if the team didn't know the lengths Stark went to, to protect them, Coulson did. It was something that he'd noticed on and off the field—Stark would take somebody else's shot without a second thought, just like he would leave things he knew the others needed but were too proud to ask for around the house.

(Coulson came in after General Ross' men had all limped out. He'd known what Stark was planning but decided not to pass the information onto Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D, who would no doubt put a stop to it. When he walked in, Stark was messing around with one of the guns that had been left behind. He raised his eyebrow and Stark showed him the disassembled gun._ Hammer tech, _he said with a mournful shake of his head. _No wonder they were so eager to leave. _When Coulson didn't say anything, Stark added, _I don't trust S.H.I.E.L.D to look out for them-us, I mean. They gave the team to you so they wouldn't have to deal with us and I just prefer to stop trouble before it becomes a problem. _He tossed the gun on the table and stood to leave the room. _Mr. Stark, _Coulson said to him. _S.H.I.E.L.D_ _just opened an investigation on Justin Hammer for unethical decisions and black market trading. We'll need you to stay out of the way for right now. _Stark eyed him. _General Ross? A.I.M? _he asked. Coulson just nodded—they were all Stark's for right now. He looked decidedly smug when he left the room.)

Stark is highly intelligent. It was never been a question, Stark's intelligence. But some people accuse him of making incredibly stupid decisions, even with all of his brainpower. Coulson won't deny that he makes stupid decisions all the time, but there's usually a reason behind them, and it's only when he's off the field. When he's working or out fighting, each decision has been carefully calculated, with each choice and their possible endings categorized by ideal outcome. And honestly, Coulson knows that Stark thinks like that all the time. He knows that possible scenarios and their many outcomes are always running through Stark's mind, and it's something Stark hates. Usually, Stark just ignores all of the logic he comes up with when he knows he can get away with the consequences, which usually results in a very stupid decision.

(It's one of those days where nothing is going right for anyone on the team. They're called away on separate missions because suddenly the world is in demand for superheroes and there's only so many of them. It makes Coulson nervous, watching them leave and knowing they won't be there to watch each other's backs. And then suddenly Stark seems to find some way to be everywhere at once—he's dropping extra weapons off for Natasha and Clint, watching Steve's back as his attackers gang up on him, identifying weak spots for Thor to hit, and staying with Bruce while he changes, helping him maintain control. When the team comes back in for the night, they're a little beat up and bruised, but they're whole and still laughing and joking. When Coulson approaches Stark, he makes it obvious he's looking for an answer. _I read everybody's files as I was off to my mission, _he admits, popping left overs into the microwave. _I knew who was going to need what, and I just made sure I was there to help them. Anyway, I've got repairs to do._ And he pulls his food out and disappears into his lab for the next half of a day.)

Stark doesn't function like a normal human being. The majority of S.H.I.E.L.D and especially the Avengers team can go for at least three days with minimal sleep. Clint and Natasha, who were specially trained, can go for long periods of time without food or drink. But Stark, he defies the rules of human needs. He can spend three days in the lab and still come up functioning. He's seen Stark go two days with barely anything more than his chlorophyll drink to sustain his body. When he finally does crash, he falls into a deep sleep for about 8 hours, then rinses and repeats. About once a month, he crashes completely and can sleep up to an entire day.

(It's been four days since anyway has actually _seen _Stark. They've heard him—rather, they've heard things exploding in the shop. But he's blocked their access to downstairs and no one's had the courage to go down and pull him away from what he's doing. Finally, Fury orders Coulson to retrieve the man and put him to bed because if they get called out on a mission right now, everyone doubts Stark will be functional enough for it. So Coulson overrides the security and makes his way downstairs. Even he'll admit he's a little surprised by what he finds. Tony has cleared out the entire lab to make room for the small drone plane he's currently rolled under. While he works furiously on the drone, he's talking nonstop in another language; Portuguese if Coulson is right (and he's usually always right). When Coulson enters the lab, he ends his conversation, then slides out from under the drone. _It's for the Air Force. Promised Rhodey a new toy, _he explains. The only sign that he hasn't slept in four days is the slight slur to his words and the dark bags under his eye. _You've been ordered to sleep, _Coulson says. Just in case Stark puts up an argument, he's written in code to shut all of the lab systems down if he doesn't type in a response code within the next fifteen minutes. Tony just _hmms_ and looks back at the drone. Without saying another word, he walks out of the lab. Jarvis informs him when he reaches his bed and Coulson types in the response code. He's still not quite sure what happened, but it seems to have worked in his favor, so he'll accept it.)

Stark is paranoid. Coulson thinks using the word "paranoid" to describe someone is a little bit complicated because, really, paranoid is a word made up of different traits that vary for each person. For Stark, Coulson thinks its 80% caution due to past experiences, 10% overprotectiveness, and 10% pure trust issues. Together, the traits establish themselves as being paranoid. And honestly, he doesn't think any of them have room to talk—they're all paranoid. Stark is just more open about his paranoia. Like hacking into databases, having one of the most advanced security systems in the world, and having at least three departments for each shipment order to go through before the shipment is actually approved and sent.

(Coulson is walking to Fury's office when Stark passes him in such a hurry that he doesn't even stop to make an insult. Curious and a little alarmed, Coulson follows him. Stark bursts into Fury's office without knocking. _Polite as- _Fury starts, but Stark interrupts him. _I thought I told you to watch your weapon shipments, _Stark growls. Coulson can tell this is going to go south fast, so he lingers outside the doorway and makes a quick, quiet phone call. _Do you even _know _where you're sending my weapons? Because it's not supposed to be here. I did not give approval for them to be sent out to the Middle East. After I go and destroy whoever you happen to be sending these weapons to, recover all of my weapons, and find out who your leak is in S.H.I.E.L.D, I'm going to- _And this time Stark cuts off because his phone is going off and Coulson knows he won't refuse to answer this call. _What Pepper? _ he barks into the phone, but his anger has already calmed down a little. Coulson moves quietly into the room and can hear her response. _I thought we agreed to only make one enemy a day Tony, and you've already filled your quota for the day, _she's saying. Stark shifts, like he's about to lash out at her but instead he raises two fingers to his eyes and points them at Fury in a warning gesture before turning to the doorway. He repeats the gesture to Coulson, adding a suspicious eye glare to it. _Well Pepper, maybe if these people weren't completely incompetent, we wouldn't have this problem, _he says as he walks down the hallway. _Good save, _Fury says with a nod. He picks up the list and hands it to Coulson. The name of the company and location of the shipment have been highlighted, and attached to the paper is a flash drive. _Find whoever is stealing our weapons. I want an inventory of the weapons you find that we can give to Stark. I want this done before he cuts our contract. _Coulson nods and walks out of the room. Stark may be paranoid, but sometimes, there's something that triumphs paranoia.)


	15. Fury

**I bet you all thought I'd died again! Well I'm here, don't worry. I've literally been staring at this chapter for about a month and a half until I sat down today and the inspiration was like "here I am!" So now you have the final chapter. I hope that this story has been enjoyable to all of you, and I hope that you'll come check out my next story (which should, hypothetically go up in a few days), which is the five and one. And May Eve, I promise I'm going to write you that plot-line story. I've got about ten billion ideas running around in my head and so far, I can't see any feasible way to tie them all together. BUT! I will work on it. I promise you that. **

**I hope you enjoyed this new format, because that's one of the main things that threw me off like crazy. **

**So, (for hopefully not the last time), read, review, and enjoy :D**

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Superheroes, Fury decides, are like children. And when you put them together, it's like high school. They fight, they push each other, they gossip about each other (a certain pair of assassins are more guilty of this than others), and then the next day they're BFFs, or whatever their calling it nowadays. So Fury has to monitor them, check up on them, manipulate them, anything to just make them follow orders (and not destroy the world they're supposed to be protecting in their free time). In their defense, Fury would watch them anyway. They're _his _team so he's responsible for _their _actions. He needs to know their faults and weaknesses so he can give them the right orders. So every time he makes a new observation, he writes it down in the appropriate file.

_Anthony Stark a.k.a Ironman_

_Stark is highly intelligent. He holds the ability to quickly pick up and understand almost any field of science. Specializes in weapons and physics. After returning from Afghanistan, Stark suspended weapons due to betrayal from close friend. While the weapons department has been restarted, contracts are intensely monitored. Be cautious when approaching about a weapons contract. However, consulting is highly recommended. Present the issue as a challenge—Stark can never turn down a new challenge. Implying an inability to make what you're asking for will result in a positive outcome. _

(Fury has had plenty of opportunities to practice how he phrases his requests. So many, in fact, that he has become an expert at getting what he needs from Stark. With any other agent or consultant, Fury wouldn't waste his time talking his way around their ego, but with Stark, it's the quickest way to get it done. Now, S.H.I.E.L.D is one of the few organizations that hold a weapon's contract with Stark Industries. They convince Stark to consult for them on any day at any hour, a privilege originally reserved only for Coronel Rhodes. Fury will complain until the sun comes up before and after a meeting with Stark, but he gets a little bit of pleasure out of their…debates, for lack of a better term. Not many people realize that Fury is highly intelligent, and talking with Stark makes him _really _think and use his skills. Plus, he enjoys seeing the little smirk Stark gets on his face at the end of their deals—the genius loves their verbal sparring just as much as Fury does, and while he hates being manipulated, he lets Fury get away with it most days.)

_Stark is stubborn. He automatically rejects any form of authority, and will rebel as a first response. Manipulation can be used, depending on the order, but caution must be used. If Stark detects any manipulation, reactions are typically worse than if an order has been issued. If something seems too easy, it probably is—any agent who expects to be insulted by Stark and instead receives a smile should be cautious about e-mail, bank, and social networking accounts. If the order is important, it is best to find Ms. Potts or a fellow team member to get Stark to cooperate. _

(Fury walked into chaos. Monitors were displaying just about everything except what they should be, between Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, other personal accounts, and an assortment of different computer games. From the seething looks Agent Hill is shooting Fury, there's only one explanation for this. _Alright, who did it? _he asks the room of panicked employees. The majority of them look up at him blankly, but a select few, who are currently displaying their private accounts across the various screens, have a guilty look in their eyes. Agent Hill speaks up for them, sounding more like a mother than their boss. _Some of these geniuses decided to issue a bet to see who could hack into Stark's home network first. _For a second, Fury is intrigued, though very doubtful. _And did any of them succeed? _Agent Hill shoots one of her glares at the apparent ring leader. _They got past the first level of security before Jarvis was able to scoop them all up and lock them in a nice web of coding. Stark dealt with them when he had a few spare minutes. _Which means Stark made them look like bigger fools than they already were. Fury sighs and makes a quick phone call. _I know Director, Natasha already told me, _Pepper Potts' voice comes over. She sounds like she does on a normal day, bustling around after Tony. _I'm trying to get him to put everything back to normal. Give it another minute. _There's a shout of _but Pepper! _in the background before the phone call cuts off. Thirty seconds later, the screens are back to normal and Agent Hill is carting out the guilty party.)

_Stark suffers post traumatic stress disorder. Stark is able to hide the problem in public for the most part, though trips to see fireworks, spend a day at the beach, or any public activity during lightning storms are restricted for him, as they are likely to set off a panic attack or vivid flashbacks. Avoid using Middle Eastern languages around Stark's presence. If situation arises, contact Dr. Banner, Ms. Potts, or Captain Rogers immediately. _

(Fury was watching the skies on night shift when Agent Hill's voice came onto his intercom. _Sir, Mr. Stark is causing problems on the top deck. He's claiming that he needs to leave and refuses to stay on the ship, _she says and he can hear the exasperation in her voice. She clearly thinks she's dealing with a three year-old. He asks if anyone is with her and when she responds that Agent Romanoff is with her, he transfers over to a private line with her. _What's going on up there agent? _he barks. There's a pause as Natasha moves herself to the side, leaving Stark arguing with Agent Hill. _Jarvis alerted Stark to an upcoming storm. He wants to drop down and circle around the storm but Agent Hill refuses to listen to him or me, _she says and he can hear the frustration in her voice. Both agents are about to snap and attack each other, and Stark is probably about ready to knock Agent Hill out and disappear. _Agent Hill, _he says, transferring back to her line. _Let him go. He'll catch up with us later. Come down here. I have an assignment for you. _She gives him a snappy reply of _yessir, _but he can tell she's pissed at him again. When she appears, he smacks Stark's file into her hands. _Thought I told you to read up on all of the Avengers, _he tells her and sends her away to find her mistake.)

_Stark is paranoid. He does not trust S.H.I.E.L.D, nor many of S.H.I.E.L.D's agents. Using his technical skills, he has, and will continue to, hack S.H.I.E.L.D databases and frequencies to satisfy his own curiosity and to soothe his fears. Certain levels of hacking are to be tolerated, though entry into the deeper, restricted levels will raise an alert system. Weapons shipments from Stark Industries are to be closely monitored, as one mistake will most likely end the contract. Anything that comes across as slightly threatening to Stark or to those in Stark's household will be dealt with in a severe fashion, so caution should be used when trying to make demands. Threats from outside sources should be taken care of before Stark has the chance to take care of them himself. _

(Coulson just barely manages to catch the threat issued by a Mexican domestic army group before it gets near Stark's main forms of education. The threat boils down to _give us weapons or watch your girlfriend die in front of you_. Coulson pulls Barton into the case discreetly and they manage to track down one of the aides to the general who just so happens to know a lot about the plan against Tony Stark—a sniper, planted across the street of a gala that Stark and Pepper are both scheduled to attend together. The pair shows up an hour early and are waiting when a man with a sniper rifle walks in the room. Of course, he doesn't get far, what with the arrow in his leg. Fury makes them stay the whole time, just to make sure they hadn't sent a back-up. No back-up shows up, but neither do Stark or Pepper. Fury sends Barton home to see if they happen to still be there, and the agent finds the two on the couch, watching a movie with a bowl of popcorn. Both of are in their pajamas. _Did you enjoy the gala? _the smart ass asks when Barton dropped his quiver at the door. _They're both here Director, _Barton grumbles, then, for good measure, steals their popcorn bowl and plops down on the chair next to the couch.)


End file.
